Aircraft comprising a cabin blower system

Abstract

An aircraft includes a turbofan engine, a cabin blower system and a PEM fuel cell stack. The cabin blower system includes a cabin blower compressor arranged to be driven by mechanical power derived from a shaft of the turbofan engine. A ducting system delivers respective portions of the mass flow rate of compressed air output by the cabin blower system to a cabin space of the aircraft via an air-conditioning unit and to the cathode input of the fuel cell stack. An electric motor receives electrical power from the fuel cell stack and provides mechanical power to the compressor via a drive arrangement of the cabin blower system. Power associated with excess capacity of the cabin blower system is recovered to the cabin blower compressor, thereby mitigating or eliminating the fuel consumption penalty on the turbofan engine associated with the excess capacity.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.