It’s enough to make you cringe. You’re taxiing on a paved surface littered with gravel, or even on unpaved surfaces in the outback, with your new sexy composite four-blade and you can almost hear the prop blades’ leading edges getting gouged with stone. Turns out the durability and lifespan of those composite blades are better than you think.
Peter Marshall at MT-Propeller U.S.A. said the nickel-cobalt leading edges on MT composite blades are six times harder than leading edges on aluminum blades. Objects that would have dented or even cracked the blades on traditional propellers would likely bounce off a composite one. This makes them appealing for backcountry ops, where you might not see the kind of blade damage (and limit-wear) you would when slinging a metal prop.