To provide a weft winding and feeding apparatus for air jet loom having a drum-type yarn storage apparatus having a drum composed of a plurality of radially displaceable drum segments to wind and release the weft and free from the problems of conventional apparatus comprising the intrusion of a yarn into the gap between the drum segments in the case of release to cause the collision of the yarn with a rounded corner of the drum segment when the yarn has especially high stiffness and forms an extremely small balloon resulting in the energy loss of the yarn and the troubles in the weft insertion and yarn transportation.

A protecting plate 10 is fixed or rotatably placed at the releasing end of the drum 6 and the weft 2 is released through the circumferential edge of the plate to prevent the intrusion of the weft into the gap 8 between the drum segments 7.