After-fan system for a gas turbine engine

A gas turbine engine, comprising:

• a fan section with an array of fan blades;
• a variable pitch fan exit guide vane array downstream of the fan section;
• and
• a short span after-fan turbine downstream of the variable pitch fan exit guide vane array, said short span after-fan turbine being positioned between an outer profile of a core static structure and a ring splitter located radially inboard of an inner periphery of a fan nacelle, the short span after-fan turbine being contained radially within the ring splitter, wherein the short span after-fan turbine is configured to extract a portion of energy from a compressed bypass flow from the fan section and return the portion of the energy to the fan section through torque.

A method of generating thrust fora gas turbine engine, comprising:

• rotating a fan section with an array of fan blades;
• rotating a short span after-fan turbine downstream of the fan section, said short span after-fan turbine being positioned between an outer profile of a core static structure and a ring splitter located radially inboard of an inner periphery of a fan nacelle, the short span after-fan turbine being contained radially within the ring splitter, wherein the short span after-fan turbine extracts a portion of energy from a compressed bypass flow from the fan section and return the portion of the energy to the fan section through torque;
• and
• varying a pitch of a variable pitch fan exit guide vane array downstream of the fan section and upstream of the short span after-fan turbine.