About us Windsor Propeller Company - 2010/09

Fred Jamieson:
the founder of
Windsor Propeller Company.
Fred Jamieson startedWindsor
Propeller Company in 1978. He became
interested in aeromodeling through his
family; his great-grandparents opened the first
toy store in San Francisco, California, and his
grandparents got him into modeling.
Fred’s stint as a drag racer helped open the
door to a long career in aviation, because drag
racers were being recruited as pilots. His jobs
included Navy test pilot, commercial airline
pilot, crop duster, and helicopter test pilot.
While flying full-scale helicopters in
Canada in the 1970s, Fred began carving
propellers from maple in the wintertime. In
the following, Windsor Propeller Company
President Teresa McTernan describes the
process that took a day.
“He originally made propellers from
maple. He would say he could see the
propeller in the block of maple.
“He would then use his grandfather’s
spoke shave and some wood
files and carve one
half of a
propeller. The propeller would just start to
come out of the wood. He was amazing in the
way he could carve in pitch.”
Half of the propeller was carved, so that
both sides were the same. Then a machine
traced a pattern it could reproduce as a full
propeller, to be used in an injection-molding
machine.
Upon retiring from full-scale flying, Fred
founded Windsor Propeller Company. This
was a result of his seeing increased interest in
his propellers, combined with an urge to
further explore what was possible. He called
the new propellers “Master Airscrews.”
(Airscrew is a different term for propeller.)
Fred had a vision and a goal, which was to
make other people successful, and he felt
strongly enough about it to risk his life’s
savings. He named the company “Windsor,”
after the town in California where he lived.
Fred investigated injection molding and
became a self-taught machinist and
mold maker. He started out
fabricating small 1/2A
propellers and marketed
them to hobby shops.
He also attended
flying events and
contests to get
his propellers
into modelers’
hands and
eagerly
looked for
feedback on
how to
improve the
designs.
One major
improvement
was made in
1980, when
Windsor
Propeller
Company began
selling fiberglassfilled
nylon propellers.
This new design didn’t
require boiling, as did the
straight nylon propellers, and the
new “airscrews” didn’t suffer from the
brittleness associated with earlier variants.
I eagerly asked about the process that is
used to make a propeller. Teresa explained
that it starts with writing a program to
design the mold. Then a milling machine
employs that program to cut the cast. A bit
of finishing work is completed to make the
mold ready for use, and then it is tested.
A propeller cast is made in halves. It is
loaded into an injection-molding machine,
which handles the amount of plastic along
with the temperature and pressure that is
forced into the mold. Depending on the size
and type of propeller, it takes 30-90 seconds
to complete.
Then the propeller is run through a
series of tests that include static thrust,
balance, and durability. An engineer
reviews all of the data, to ensure that the
product conforms to a set of specifications
and standards.
Once satisfied with the propeller, it is
given to a group of enthusiastic beta testers.
They put it through some real-world use,
mounted to the front of a variety of aircraft.
When Teresa started working for
Windsor in 1982, the company consisted of
approximately 15 propellers, and the five
employees worked in one building. That
decade saw a lot of growth, both with the
hobby and within the company. Fred
continued to design all of the propellers,
first carving them by hand and then using a
computer.
One of the projects he was most excited
about was a three-blade propeller; he
wanted it molded with the hub. The design
was more challenging, but the hugely
successful Master Airscrew three-blade
propellers have proven to be one of the
company’s best sellers. They are even
popular with electric-power pilots, even
though they were designed for glow
engines.
By the time of Fred’s death, on February
2, 2009, his company had gone global. It
had grown to nine employees, greatly
expanded its product offerings, and was
producing approximately 250,000
propellers each year.
Teresa said the following about Fred’s
accomplishments.
56 MODEL AVIATION
Windsor Propeller Company “ ”
I am proud of our company being
committed to keeping it going for
as long as people want to buy
Master Airscrew propellers.
by Jay Smith
09sig2x_00MSTRPG.QXD 7/22/10 10:20 AM Page 56
“He took propeller making to the next
level from where he found it as a young man
flying model airplanes into adulthood. He
contributed to it and improved it. He was a
wonderful man to work for.”
The company is now in the capable
hands of its employees, many of whom have
been with Windsor for more than a decade.
I asked Teresa what she was most proud
of, and her response was:
“I am proud of our company being
committed to keeping it going for as long as
people want to buy Master Airscrew
propellers. We are inspired by Fred’s life
and want to keep his dream alive.”
When we ended our interview, I reflected
on Teresa’s enthusiasm for the company and
our hobby, as well as on the following
comment she made regarding modelers.
“I have never met more regular, decent
people than in modeling. Unbelievably nice
people make working for the company
awesome.”
I couldn’t agree more. MA
Jay Smith
[email protected]