General Electric Company

Jon Michael Vishnauski

Matthew William Wiseman

William Lee Herron

Paul H Kutschenreuter, Jr

Ronald George Maruscik

Brian Edward Krupp

A method to compensate for blade tip clearance deterioration between rotating blade tips and a surrounding shroud in an aircraft gas turbine engine includes determining one or more variables based on at least one or more moving averages of one or more engine operating parameters respectively averaged over a fixed number of operational engine flight cycles and adjusting a flow rate of thermal control air to counter the blade tip clearance deterioration based on the one or more variables. The engine operating parameters may include running number of engine cycles, takeoff and cruise exhaust gas temperature margins, a cruise turbine efficiency, takeoff and cruise maximum turbine speeds, a cruise fuel flow. Some or all of the variables may be differences between the moving averages and corresponding baselines of the engine operating parameters respectively or the variables may all be moving averages. The flow rate may be adjusted incrementally.

Compensating for blade tip clearance deterioration in active clearance control

A hypersonic inlet and a hypersonic engine and flight vehicle having such an inlet. The three-dimensionally-swept inlet has an upper member with a caret-shaped lower surface portion producing a two-dimensional wedge flow below such lower surface portion. The inlet also has a lower member having two inverted and transposed semi-caret-shaped upper surface portions producing a two-dimensional wedge flow above such upper surface portions. An inlet aft portion connects together the upper and lower members and has an orifice defining the engine inlet throat which at least partially receives the two-dimensional flows.

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Loveland, OH, United States of America

Jon Michael Vishnauski