Rolls-royce North American Technologies Inc.

Rolls-royce Corporation

Richard K Keller

Michael James Armstrong

Jonathan Sands

Edward Claude Rice

William Barry Bryan

Dwayne Bevis

Paul K Johnson

Jonathan S Sands

A hybrid propulsion system for an aircraft includes a gas turbine engine, an energy storage device, at least one propulsor configured to use energy provided by one or both of the gas turbine engine and the energy storage device to provide thrust. The system also includes a controller configured to vary the power provided to the propulsor(s) in response to a signal. The signal may be provided manually by a user of the system or automatically. Automatic signals may be indicative of a threat to the aircraft, geographical location of the aircraft, altitude of the aircraft, or ingestion of particles into the gas turbine engine.

Hybrid turbine engine with selective electrical module engagement

A system including a turbine engine configured to generate rotor power and produce an engine air flow. The system is configured to provide rotor power to one of more shaft-driven lift fans to generate a first thrust on an aircraft body and provide a gas flow to one or more gas-driven lift fans to generate a second thrust on the aircraft body. The gas flow may be at least a portion of the engine air flow produced by the turbine engine. The turbine engine may be configured to exhaust another portion of the engine air flow through a jet nozzle to generate an engine thrust. In examples, the system includes at least a second turbine engine. The one of more shaft-driven lift fans and/or one of more gas-driven lift fans be powered by the turbine engine, the second turbine engine, or both the turbine engine and the second turbine engine.

Dual power lift system

An integrated propulsion system comprising at least two gas turbine engines, at least one fan, and a transmission assembly coupling the at least two gas turbine engines to the at least one fan wherein the at least two gas turbine engines are disposed within a main body of an airframe comprising the main body and a pair of wings, and wherein the number of gas turbine engines is greater than the number of fans.

Integrated aircraft propulsion system

A fan module for an aircraft is disclosed herein. The fan module includes a fan rotor, a vane ring, and an optional power supply system. The fan rotor is configured to discharge thrust in an aft direction when rotated about a central axis. The vane ring is located aft of the fan rotor along the central axis and mounted for rotation about the central axis. The vane ring includes a plurality of airfoils arranged to interact with the thrust discharged by the fan rotor so that the thrust drives rotation of the vane ring.

Fan module with rotatable vane ring power system

The disclosure is directed to an optionally hybrid power system that may operate either as a traditional power system, deriving power from a single power source, or as a hybrid power system, deriving power from multiple types of power sources. An example optionally hybrid power system may include a gas turbine engine and one or more electric motors. When configured as a traditional power system the optionally hybrid power system may derive all power from the gas turbine engine. However, when configured as a hybrid power system, the one or more motors may be coupled to the optionally hybrid power system to supplement the power produced by the gas turbine engine. Additionally, an operator interface that may control the optionally hybrid power system may select from a plurality of operating modes that depend on the configuration of the optionally hybrid power system.

Optionally hybrid power system

A fan module for an aircraft is disclosed herein. The fan module includes a fan rotor and an optional power supply system. The fan rotor is mounted for rotation about a central axis and configured to couple to a rotational power source. The fan rotor includes a plurality of variable-pitch fan blades each movable from a thrust-generation orientation to a power-generation orientation.

Fan module with adjustable pitch blades and power system

An airplane including an airframe and a turboprop propulsion system is disclosed in this paper. The turboprop propulsion system includes a propeller mounted for rotation about a propeller axis and a gas turbine coupled to the propeller to drive rotation of the propeller.

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Indianapolis, IN, United States of America

Richard K Keller