The propellor hub of a P-47D is taken apart and overhauled with new rubber gasket seals at the 27th ADG depot near 7-Mile, Port Moresby.

Note the large wooden crate upon which the repair is being conducted, indicating that new blades have just arrived as well. These facilites could not overhaul blades, as this required specialised torsion and honing machinary, available only at the major repair bases in Australia. In forward bases all damaged propellors were simply replaced, as you see here.

All propellor pitch control in Fifth Air Force aircraft was done with oil/hydraulic systems with two exceptions - the P-400 and B-26 type aircraft which were electric. The B-26s were notorious for their electric "runaway" props - the term used whereby a propellor would slip into fine pitch, thus producing an excessive engine speed, termed high Revolutions Per Minute (RPM). This was usually the result of a faulty solonoid.

When other types were hit by flak, resulting in a sudden drop of oil pressure, it was often a race against time to "feather" the propellor - ie make the blades face into the slipstream to reduce drag - before all oil pressure was lost to the hub and the blades could not be feathered.

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