General Electric Company

Douglas Duane Ward

Nicholas Joseph Kray

David William Crall

Charles Richard Evans

Gregory Carl Gemeinhardt

Joseph T Begovich, Jr

Brandon Wayne Miller

James Thompson

Apostolos Pavlos Karafillis

Ming Xie

Herbert S Chao

Viswanadha Gupta Sakala

Thomas Chadwick Waldman

Ian Francis Prentice

Wendy Wen-Ling Lin

Scott Roger Finn

Wendy Wenling Lin

Sultan Shair

Dong-Jin Shim

Mitchell Harold Boyer

Xiaomei Fang

Phillip W Rambo

Christopher Madsen

An aircraft defining a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction is provided. The aircraft includes a fuselage; an engine mounted at a location spaced from the fuselage of the aircraft, the engine comprising rotor blades; and at least one fuselage shield removably coupled to the fuselage at a location in alignment with the rotor blades along the lateral direction.

Removeable fuselage shield for an aircraft

An aircraft defining a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction is provided. The aircraft includes: a fuselage; an engine mounted at a location spaced from the fuselage of the aircraft, the engine comprising a plurality of rotor blades; and a fuselage shield attached to or formed integrally with the fuselage at a location in alignment with the plurality of rotor blades along the lateral direction, the fuselage shield comprising a first layer defining a first density and a second layer defining a second density, the first density being different than the second density.

Layered fuselage shield

An airfoil that includes an airfoil body having a root and a tip, and convex and concave sides that extend between a leading edge and a trailing edge. The airfoil also includes at least a first cladding element that is attached to the airfoil body. The first cladding element includes a first portion and a second portion. The second portion is configured to separate from the first portion when the first cladding element encounters a force of at least a predetermined amount.

Multi-material leading edge protector

Composite hollow blade and an associated method of forming the composite hollow blade are disclosed. The method includes forming a core by fabricating a grid core structure based on a plurality of design parameters, where the grid core includes a plurality of first reinforcing components disposed in a first curable matrix material. The method further includes forming an outer layer including a plurality of second reinforcing components disposed in a second curable matrix material. Further, the method includes coupling the core to the outer layer and curing the core and the outer layer to form the composite hollow blade.

Composite hollow blade and a method of forming the composite hollow blade

A blade for the fan section of a turbine engine comprising a composite core defining a pressure side and a suction side extending axially between a core leading edge and a core trailing edge defining a chord-wise direction and extending radially between a core root and a core tip defining a span-wise direction and a leading edge strip made of materials with different elasticity and mounted to the core leading edge.

Turbine engine blade with leading edge strip

A containment assembly for use in a turbine engine includes a fan case formed from a composite material. The fan case includes a forward end, an aft end, and an opening defined through the fan case between the forward and aft ends. The containment assembly further includes a structural attachment member formed from a metallic material and coupled to the fan case. The structural attachment member is positioned within the opening in the fan case and is configured to receive at least one fastener to couple a component to the structural attachment member.

Turbine engine containment assembly and method for manufacturing the same

A containment case includes a fan assembly including a hub having a plurality of fan blades extending radially outward between radially inward blade roots and radially outward blade tips. Containment case includes a radially outer shell circumscribing fan assembly and having a first radially inner surface and a radially outer surface, an inner structure having a second radially inner surface extending along first radially inner surface, and a trench extending circumferentially along second radially inner surface into inner structure from second radially inner surface. The trench is approximately axially aligned with the fan assembly. The containment case also includes, within the trench, a trench filler layer configured to dissipate impact energy from a released fan blade and having a plurality of sheets including a fibrous composite material having a plurality of fibers fabricated within each sheet, where the sheets are coupled together into a repeating pattern of hollow units.

Containment case trench filler layer and method of containing releasable components from rotatable machines

A turbine engine that includes an engine casing including a shell and an angel wing member. The angel wing member includes a base defined at the shell, a tip positioned distal from the base, and a first side and a second side that define a thickness of the angel wing member. The thickness of the angel wing member is non-uniform between the base and the tip.

Turbine engine and containment assembly for use in a turbine engine

A turbine engine that includes an engine casing including a shell and an angel wing member. The angel wing member includes a base defined at the shell and a tip positioned distal from the base. The turbine engine also includes a backsheet extending over the angel wing member such that an angled region is defined in the backsheet at an interface with the tip. The tip has a predetermined contour capable of mitigating stress concentrations in the angled region induced from said tip.

A gas turbine engine composite article having a composite article airfoil extending outwardly to an article root to an article airfoil tip. Within the article airfoil is a core including a core airfoil attached to a core root including a core dovetail. A continuous outer three-dimensional braided layer including braided composite material tows are braided on the core and the braided layer covers the entire core airfoil and the core root. The core may be an inflatable mandrel or a composite core made of a composite material. The core may include stiffeners such as an I beam or hollow rectangular cross-section box beams. A method for making such an article includes braiding a continuous outer three-dimensional braided layer including braided composite material tows on the core including covering the entire core airfoil and the core root with the continuous outer three-dimensional braided layer.

Braided blades and vanes having dovetail roots

A method of manufacturing a rotor blade is provided. The method includes forming a preform from a plurality of composite plies, the preform including an airfoil portion and a dovetail portion, removing a cutout portion from the dovetail portion of the preform to define a cutout in the preform, wherein the removing the cutout portion facilitates reducing residual stresses in the preform, and inserting an insert into the cutout formed by the removal of the cutout portion.

Blade and method for manufacturing blade

A jet aircraft fan case containment design that uses polyurethane to absorb fan blade fragments and uses polyurethane to prevent fan blade fragments from penetrating the fan case. The polyurethane is used in place of or to supplement KEVLAR&reg; and/or fiberglass wraps used to contain fan blade fragments. The polyurethane is also used in place of aluminum alloy and stiffening ribs in the fan case.

Jet aircraft fan case containment design

A thin film that forms an interface between metal surfaces and polymeric inserts of aircraft engine fan blades. The thin film is formed from a chemical comprised of carbon black, at least one evaporable solvent, a combination of phenolic-like resins dissolved in the solvent and the balance filler and inert ingredients. The thin film, upon drying of the evaporable solvent, forms a phenolic that bonds with the metallic portion of the fan blade. After the polymeric material is applied to recesses in the fan blade and cured, a chemical bond is formed between the thin film and the elastomeric inserts. The bonded structure has improved FWT peak stresses and improved fracture toughness.

Adhesion enhancers to promote bonds of improved strength between elastomers metals in lightweight aircraft fan blades

Elastomeric formulation used in the construction of lightweight aircraft engine fan blades

A hybrid gas turbine engine airfoil is made by forming a metal airfoil with a pocket in one side thereof. The pocket is covered by a caul. An elastomeric fluid is injected into the pocket and cured therein for bonding thereto. The caul is removed from the airfoil to expose the cured elastomer conforming to the aerodynamic profile thereof.

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West Chester, OH, United States of America

Douglas Duane Ward