Prop-fan with improved stability
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsEdward A. Rothman, John A. Violette
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Improved prop-fan stability is achieved by providing each blade of the prop-fan with a leading edge which, outwardly, from a location thereon at the mid-span of the blade, occupy generally a single plane.
Claims6
A prop-fan comprising a plurality of swept, rotatable airfoil blades pivotally mounted to a hub for pitch change movement with respect thereto, and having a solidity ratio of 1.0 or greater at the roots of said blades and less than 1.0 at the tips of said blades, said prop fan being operable at or above critical Mach numbers and at transonic or supersonic tip speeds, and being characterized by:
- each of said blades having a leading edge, said leading edge, from a location thereon at approximately a midportion of the span and said blade, outwardly to the tip thereof, being curved in a chordal direction to define blade sweep while exhibiting no significant offset curvature in a span-wise direction.
A prop-fan comprising a plurality of swept, rotatable airfoil blades pivotally mounted to a hub for pitch change movement with respect thereto, and having a solidity ratio of 1.0 or greater at the roots of said blades and less than 1.0 at the tips of said blades, said prop-fan being operable at or above critical Mach numbers and at transonic or supersonic tip speeds, and being characterized by:
- each of said rotatable blades, outwardly from approximately the midpoint of the span thereof, comprising a plurality of stacked airfoil sections defined substantially by the coordinate system of Tables VIII through XX set forth hereinabove.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.