Were reverse pitch propellors ever fitted to piston engined aircraft, and if so which?
by 
sam st pierre
ANSWERS: 3
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I believe that the DeHavilland DHC-4 Caribou had reverse pitch propellors. It ran Pratt and Whitney Wasp radial engines. I'll post some references as soon as I find them.
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Some DHC4 Caribous were converted by fitting turbo-prop (aka propjet) engines.These would have had reverse pitch propellors, but did the piston-engined originals have them?
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Absolutely! When first deployed to Vietnam, the Caribous with the 1st Aviation Company and the 61st Aviation Company had major difficulties getting stopped after landing on wet grass or wet laterite runways. The ARPA test aircraft (tail # 080) was the first to be fitted with reverse pitch in late 1963. In early 1964, most of the aircraft of the 61st Avn. Co. had been converted and landing overruns became a thing of the past. It's easy to tell which aircraft were fitted with reverse props--just look at the propeller dome--if you see a painted nose cone, it has standard Hamilton Standard props--if you see a cylindrical dome with a big nut at the tip, it has reverse pitch Ham Standard props. The actuation system on the throttles was kind of Mickey Mouse, as it used small, plastic Microswitches that were not sealed and were subject to contamination. Adjustment of the system was somewhat tricky also, but when they were right, the whole system worked exceptionally well.
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