S. Albert Reed began manufacturing aerodynamically efficient duralumin propellers for the U.S. Army Air Service and Navy in 1922, with the Reed Propeller Company formed as a subsidiary of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company in 1924. His propeller was used in more than eighty engine and airframe combinations, was the choice of racing teams for the Pulitzer and Schneider Trophies, and won the Collier Trophy for 1925.

The U.S. Navy's victory in the 1923 Schneider Trophy Race flying Curtiss R2C-2 racers introduced to Europe new ideas of high speed aircraft design, especially in regard to their all-metal Reed propellers. British manufacturer, Richard Fairey, observed the race and obtained the license to manufacture the Reed. Fairey-Reed propellers powered Britain's high speed aircraft of the late 1920s and early 1930s. They were used on the 1927, 1929, and 1931 Supermarine aircraft flown to win the Schneider Trophy. World speed records for straightaway and closed course for both land- and seaplanes featured these propellers. A British Supermarine S.6 piloted by A. H. Orlebar reached 572.3 km/hr (357.7 mph) in 1929, and George H. Stainforth reached 652.0 km/hr (407.5 mph) in an S.6B in 1931.

The Fairey-Reed propeller was an ideal racing propeller, but it became apparent that the design overall was unsuitable for use by military and commercial operators because it was a fixed-pitch propeller.