80’s styled non-cased jet engine could possibly reduce fuel consumption
by: Bradley Wint on March 24th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
NASA and GE Aviation have partnered together to develop a bit of aviation technology first thought up in the 1980s. With high airplane fuel prices and emissions putting heavier financial burdens on commercial airlines, the two developers above are experimenting with a non-cased engine fan. In 1983, when fuel prices were also at an all time high, the first experiments with open engine technology took place, resulting in huge economy savings of about 26%. However they were unable to overcome the excessive noise given off by the blades.
GE and NASA are once again working with the idea and testing 7 different blade propulsion designs at Glenn’s counter-rotating propulsion rig in two different wind tunnels. The models are between 1/5 to 1/6th the size of the planned engine size to be fitted on real planes. They feature adjustable blade pitching, so airspeeds can be varied without having to adjust the actual rotation speed of the unit. Also, they are working with a number of specially/aerodynamically shaped blades to drastically cut down on the noise.
Both companies have stated that there is much more potential now with the use of virtual simulation and a much bigger knowledge base of information. They expect that these new engines can reduce carbon output and that the noise levels noise levels can be reduced to an acceptable level.
There are still a number of set backs because the team has to dissect the old model and rework it into their new system. There are other safety concerns involved and a commercial model for medium to large sized jets won’t be on stream till 2020. However, anything to help reduce carbon emissions is necessary since airplanes alone contribute to about 10% of the earth’s total atmospheric carbon.
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