Good point. I wonder, though, if that 85 HP electric motor *could* turn an original LeRhone prop at the appropriate RPM. Electric motors have scads of low-end torque, and that is what it'd take.
Reminds me of Boeing's 50th anniversary back in the '60s. They hired a company to build a full-scale replica of the B&W, Boeing's first airplane (Pete Bowers helped with the research). The original had a Hall-Scott engine of 125 HP, and the replica builders installed a Lycoming GO-435 of 170 HP. But the Lycoming had a teensy, skinny prop, and I understand that the replica could barely get out of its own way.
Seattle's Museum of Flight sells a nice little model of the B&W. But it's got the teensy prop of the Lycoming-powered version.....
Ron Wanttaja