Aircraft hybrid propulsion system
AssigneesROLLS-ROYCE plc, Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG
InventorsGideon Daniel Venter, Giles E Harvey
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Abstract
An aircraft hybrid propulsion system (5) comprises an internal combustion engine (10) comprising a main drive shaft (24), an electric machine (28) comprising an electric machine rotor (78), a propulsor (12) mounted to a propulsor shaft (62), and a clutch arrangement configured to selectively couple each of the gas turbine engine main drive shaft (24) and electric machine rotor (78) to the propulsor drive shaft (62). The electric machine rotor (78) is mounted coaxially with the main drive shaft (24) and the clutch arrangement comprises a first overrunning clutch (52) configured to couple the main drive shaft (24) to the propulsor drive shaft (62), and a second overrunning clutch (54) configured to couple the electric machine rotor (78) to the propulsor drive shaft (62).
Claims14
An aircraft hybrid propulsion system comprising;
- an internal combustion engine comprising a main drive shaft;
- an electric machine comprising an electric machine rotor;
- a propulsor mounted to a propulsor shaft;
- and
- a clutch arrangement configured to selectively couple each of the main drive shaft and the electric machine rotor to the propulsor shaft;
- wherein
- the electric machine rotor mounted coaxially with the main drive shaft;
- and
- the clutch arrangement comprises
- a first overrunning clutch that couples the main drive shaft to the propulsor shaft when torque is applied by the main drive shaft to the propulsor shaft in a first rotational direction relative to the propulsor shaft, and cannot transmit torque in a second rotational direction because the main drive shaft is decoupled from the propulsor shaft in the second rotational direction, and
- a second overrunning clutch that couples the electric machine rotor to the propulsor shaft when torque is applied by the electric machine to the propulsor shaft in the first rotational direction relative to the propulsor shaft, and cannot transmit torque in the second rotational direction because the electric machine is decoupled from the propulsor shaft in the second rotational direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.