Air turbine starter with shaped vanes

An air turbine starter comprising:

• a housing defining an inlet, an outlet, and a curvilinear flow path extending between the inlet and the outlet;
• a turbine having a rotor and a set of circumferentially spaced blades located within the housing, with at least a portion of the blades of the set of circumferentially spaced blades extending into the curvilinear flow path and rotatable in a rotational direction in response to a fluid flowing within the curvilinear flow path from the inlet to the outlet;
• a drive shaft operably coupled to and rotating with the rotor to define a rotational axis;
• and
• a set of vanes including a first vane and a second vane, the set of vanes located within a portion of the curvilinear flow path, each vane of the set of vanes having an outer wall extending between a root and a tip in a span-wise direction and between a leading edge and a trailing edge in a chord-wise direction;
• the first vane is shaped that a first line, extending between the root and the tip at a first percent of the first vane in the chord-wise direction, forms a first acute tangential angle relative to a first ray extending perpendicularly from the rotational axis and intersecting the first line when viewed in a first plane perpendicular to the rotational axis and including the first line and the first ray;
• and
• the second vane is shaped such that a second line, extending between the root and the tip at a second percent of the second vane in the chord-wise direction, forms a second acute tangential angle relative to a second ray extending perpendicularly fro the rotational axis and intersecting the second line when viewed in a second plane perpendicular to the rotational axis and including the second line and the second ray, with the first percent being equal to the second percent, and the first acute tangential angle being non-equal to the second acute tangential angle.

An air turbine starter comprising:

• a housing defining an inlet, an outlet, and a curvilinear flow path extending between the inlet and the outlet;
• a turbine having a rotor and a set of circumferentially spaced blades located within the housing, with at least a portion of the blades of the set of circumferentially spaced blades extending into the curvilinear flow path and rotatable in a rotational direction in response to a fluid flowing within the curvilinear flow path from the inlet to the outlet;
• a drive shaft operably coupled to and rotating with the rotor to define a rotational axis;
• and
• at least one vane located within a portion of the curvilinear flow path, the at least one vane having an outer wall extending between a root and a tip in a span-wise direction and between a leading edge and a trailing edge in a chord-wise direction, the at least one vane being shaped such that:
• a line, extending between the root and the tip at a same percent of the vane in the chord-wise direction, forms an acute axial angle relative to a ray extending perpendicularly from the rotational axis and intersecting the line when viewed in a plane extending along the rotational axis and including the line and the ray;
• and
• the acute axial angle is non-constant in the span-wise direction along the line.