General Electric Company

Jeffre Gerry Loewe

William Clarke Brooks

Barry Lynn Allmon

Lee Alan Blanton

Courtney James Tudor

Edward Atwood Rainous

Vicky Showalter Budinger

John J Ciokajlo

A leading edge structure for use in an aerospace vehicle includes a body having a flowpath surface which defines a leading edge adapted to face an air flow during operation, and an opposed inner surface. The body is segmented into a plurality of portions having varying thermal properties and/or mechanical discontinuities, so as to promote stress concentrations in ice attached to the flowpath surface.

Ice shed reduction for leading edge structures

A leading edge structure for use in an aerospace vehicle includes a body having a flowpath surface which defines a leading edge adapted to face an air flow during operation; and a metallic icephobic plating comprising nickel applied to at least a portion of the flowpath surface.

A support bearing assembly for supporting a jet aircraft engine high speed rotor shaft where an operating temperature of up to 1500 degrees F. is involved and the bearing unit is exposed to such temperature condition, includes a rolling elements-inner and outer race bearing unit capable of operating at such temperature level without adverse effect and, e.g., these components being comprised of ceramic matrix composites. Since such a bearing unit will have different thermal growth than its metallic support housing, the bearing unit is supported in pairs of opposed cylindrical cages, there being an inner cage pair for holding the inner race and an outer cage pair for holding the outer race. The cages have flange means at one end and circularly, spaced support arms extending from the flanges a distance to cage opposite end locations where the support arms are formed as finger structures which interfit with the race members, the spacing between the support arms defining slots in the cage bodies. Fixing pins are carried in the finger structures and interfit with passages or grooves formed in the races. The support arms are flexible in the radial direction but are stiff in tangential or circumferential directions so the radial flexibility permits radial thermal differential growths in the supporting components while keeping the bearing unit supported and radially constrained. The cage units will have high thermal expansion characteristics whereas others of metallic components in the assembly will be intermediate value with that of the ceramic bearing unit being the lowest.

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Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Jeffre Gerry Loewe