Aircraft engine
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsBrendan Michael Freely, Kurt David Murrow, Michael James McMahon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of operating an aircraft engine coupled to a wing of an aircraft including: setting a pitch of a plurality of rotor blades of a rotor assembly of the aircraft engine at non-uniform pitch angles along a circumferential direction of the aircraft engine such that the plurality of rotor blades define a first pitch at a first position and a second pitch at a second position, wherein the second position is 180 degrees offset from the first position, and wherein the first pitch is different from the second pitch.
Claims20
A method of operating an aircraft engine coupled to a wing of an aircraft comprising:
- setting a pitch of a plurality of rotor blades of a rotor assembly of the aircraft engine at non-uniform pitch angles along a circumferential direction of the aircraft engine such that the plurality of rotor blades define a first pitch at a first position and a second pitch at a second position, wherein the second position is 180 degrees offset from the first position, and wherein the first pitch is different from the second pitch;
- receiving data indicative of an operating condition of the aircraft engine, the aircraft, or both;
- and
- setting the pitch of the plurality of rotor blades to uniform pitch angles along the circumferential direction in response to receiving data indicative of the operating condition such that the plurality of rotor blades define substantially the same pitch angles when in the first position as when in the second position.
An aircraft engine defining a circumferential direction, the aircraft engine comprising:
- a turbomachine;
- a rotor assembly comprising a plurality of rotor blades driven by the rotor assembly;
- a pitch change mechanism operable with the plurality of rotor blades for changing a pitch of the plurality of rotor blades;
- and
- a controller operably connected to the pitch change mechanism, the controller configured to:
- set a pitch of the plurality of rotor blades through the pitch change mechanism to non-uniform pitch angles along the circumferential direction such that the plurality of rotor blades define a first pitch at a first position and a second pitch at a second position, wherein the second position is 180 degrees offset from the first position, and wherein the first pitch is different from the second pitch;
- receive data indicative of an operating condition of the aircraft engine, the aircraft, or both;
- and
- set the pitch of the plurality of rotor blades to uniform pitch angles along the circumferential direction in response to receiving data indicative of the operating condition such that the plurality of rotor blades define substantially the same pitch angles when in the first position as when in the second position.
An aircraft comprising:
- a wing;
- an engine coupled to the wing and defining a circumferential direction, the engine comprising:
- a turbomachine;
- a rotor assembly comprising a plurality of rotor blades driven by the rotor assembly, the plurality of rotor blades extending at least partially over a top of the wing when in a first position and at least partially below a bottom of the wing when in a second position;
- a pitch change mechanism operable with the plurality of rotor blades for changing a pitch of the plurality of rotor blades;
- and
- a controller operably connected to the pitch change mechanism and configured to set a pitch of the plurality of rotor blades through the pitch change mechanism at non-uniform pitch angles along the circumferential direction such that the plurality of rotor blades define a first pitch at the first position and a second pitch at the second position wherein the first pitch is different from the second pitch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.