General Electric Company

Daniel J Lahti

Ching-Pang Lee

Kattalaicheri Srinivasan Venkataramani

Vincent H Lee

Donald F Sargisson

Norbert O Stockman

James L Younghans

David E Yates

Parmanand Mungur

A hybrid laminar flow nacelle for housing an engine of an aircraft includes an outer annular cowl having a leading lip and radially spaced and axially extending annular outer and inner forward surface portions which merge at the leading lip. The nacelle incorporates a suction bleed system between the surfaces and a tailored outer surface geometry shape for producing reduced friction drag laminar flow over the outer cowl at cruise operation of the aircraft and producing separation-free flow over the inner surface of the cowl at off-cruise operation of the aircraft.

Hybrid laminar flow nacelle

A hypersonic scramjet engine fuel injector and a hypersonic scramjet engine having such a fuel injector. The engine has a serially connected inlet, combustor, and exhaust nozzle. Multiple, horizontally-spaced-apart fuel injectors are positioned in and connected to the combustor's top portion. Each fuel injector has a hollow wedge shape housing. To improve fuel-air mixing for better combustion, the housing's end wall has multiple, discrete, convergent-divergent fuel outlet nozzles and its side walls have horizontally-extending exterior grooves. Fuel is used to cool the fuel injector housing with the housing's bottom and side walls having fuel-exit holes and the housing having an interior serpentine fuel passageway.

Hypersonic scramjet engine fuel injector

An improved nacelle is provided for housing an aircraft engine and reducing aerodynamic drag during aircraft operation. In one embodiment, the nacelle houses a gas turbine engine and comprises a leading edge and a trailing edge, having a reference chord extending therebetween, and an outer surface which is continuous from the leading edge to the trailing edge. The outer surface includes a forward portion, an intermediate portion and an aft portion that has a profile defined by a varying thickness measured perpendicularly from the chord to the outer surface. The profile has a maximum thickness at the intersection of the forward and intermediate portions, which intersection is located greater than about 36% of the chord from the leading edge, and is effective for increasing laminar flow over the nacelle for reducing aerodynamic drag.

Laminar flow necelle

A wing-mounted gas turbofan engine is provided with an exhaust system that reduces airflow drag during subsonic aircraft flight operation. The system reduces drag by turning the engine bypass exhaust stream away from the underside of the airplane wing to lessen its tendency to reduce air pressure under the wing. Low pressure below the airplane wing has a detrimental effect on wing lift which, in turn, causes greater airflow drag. The exhaust system construction lessens its pressure lowering influence by first, inwardly curving the exhaust system exit to turn the bypass flow away from the airplane wing; second, by predetermining the location of a nozzle throat within the bypass stream to control exit exhaust pressure so as to match outside air pressure and third, by decreasing the diameter of a portion of the engine nacelle just downstream of the bypass exhaust stream exit to provide a flow region for the exhaust that is further from the airplane wing.

Drag-reducing nacelle

A high bypass ratio gas turbofan engine provided with a hybrid mixer for mixing that portion of the bypass stream equivalent to a bypass ratio of substantially two with the core engine hot gas stream. The mixture is passed through a common exhaust nozzle.

Growing community of inventors

Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Daniel J Lahti