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US 12,752,923 B2Granted
Aircraft with an unducted fan propulsor
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsSara Elizabeth Carle, Daniel L. Tweedt, Syed Arif Khalid, Andrew Breeze-Stringfellow, William Bowden
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Abstract
The present disclosure is generally related to aircraft having one or more unducted fan propulsors at locations within specific regions relative to an airfoil, such as a wing or horizontal stabilizer. More specifically, the specific regions are located where there is a relatively higher pressure air flow beneath the wings or above a horizontal stabilizer. That higher pressure air flow can be utilized to provide increased thrust from the unducted fan propulsor.
Claims20
An aircraft comprising:
- a fuselage;
- a pair of wings extending from the fuselage,
- two or more unducted fan propulsors, each of the unducted fan propulsors is mounted relative to one of the wings on a high pressure side thereof, the unducted fan propulsor having a centerline (CL), a plurality of blades arranged in a forward array and a plurality of blades arranged in a rearward array, wherein only one of the forward and rearward array of blades are rotating blades and the rotating blades define a maximum outer diameter (D);
- a point (P) located at an intersection of the CL and a line HP perpendicular to the CL that passes through an axial midpoint between a rearward trailing edge at a root of a blade of the rearward array and a forward leading edge at a root of a blade of the forward array when the forward leading edge and rearward trailing edge of the respective blades are aligned with each other;
- an airfoil section having an effective quarter chord point QC;
- a positioning line (R) having a length (RL) and extending from the QC to the point P of the unducted fan propulsor at an angle θ measured positive in a counter-clockwise direction when the high pressure side of the airfoil section is below the airfoil section when viewed looking from an outboard position towards an inboard position of the wing;
- wherein 0.07≤RL/D≤2.0 and θ is between 187° and 342°;
- a gearbox assembly coupling a low pressure turbine shaft output to a fan shaft of the propulsor;
- and
- a mounting member that couples the gearbox assembly to a fan frame.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.