Gas turbine engine dual inner central drive shaft

Abstract

A dual inner central drive shaft in a gas turbine engine includes rearward and forward shaft portions which overlap and interengage with one another. The rearward shaft portion includes an elongated cylindrical inner middle portion and a rear conical end portion, whereas the forward shaft portion includes an elongated cylindrical outer middle portion and a front conical end portion. The respective opposite ends of the inner and outer middle portions of the rearward and forward shaft portions have intermeshing rear and front sets of radially projecting and circumferentially spaced splines which extend parallel to the shaft axis so as to rigidly secure the outer and inner middle portions of the rearward and forward shaft portions together for concurrent rotary motion of the rearward and forward shaft portions in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.