4 ms·
> Airbus is also assessing shielding the area of the fuselage closest to the engines to minimize the risk of a blade off — one or more composite blades breaking
by inhumantsar 9mo ago
> Airbus is also assessing shielding the area of the fuselage closest to the engines to minimize the risk of a blade off — one or more composite blades breaking, which could dent or puncture the fuselage and, in the worst-case scenario, strike a passenger.
sightly terrifying
- KolmogorovComp 9mo agonot more terrifying than sitting in any turboprop airplane.
- roboror 9mo agoYeah I'd think you'd need some serious shielding to prevent a puncture
- in_a_hole 9mo agoI had a sharp intake of breath after reading this and then clicking through to see the header image of the article.
- mapt 9mo agoThe cowling of the current turbines serves the same purpose, but needs to cover 360 degrees of rotation, so it's heavier and draggier. The blades have a bit more angular momentum in the propfan than in a high bypass turbofan, but there's fewer of them.
- dameyawn 9mo agoInstead of reinforcing the fuselage, I wonder if just having a 1/4 nacelle that shields the passenger side would work.
- fsckboy 9mo ago>The cowling of the current turbines serves the same purpose, but needs to cover 360 degrees of rotation this doesn't make sense. if you are not worried about fan blades flying off in directions other than the fuselage, why cover 360 degrees? (and if you are worried 360, then why open rotor?)
- somewhereoutth 9mo agoThe cowling is its own structural support, so needs to be strong all around, otherwise it would fail on the other side and you'd get blade+cowling approaching the fuselage at high velocity.
- pavon 9mo agoThe impact area of the fuselage looks much larger than an unrolled cowling, and thus significantly heavier to reinforce. The smaller cowling will save drag through.
- ahartmetz 9mo agoIt might hit the fuselage at a flatter angle than it would hit a nacelle, which would help.
- csours 9mo agoHigh bypass turbo fans do this as well, it's just in the fan/engine housing, not the fuselage.
- danparsonson 9mo agoReminded me of this: https://youtu.be/j973645y5AA?si=QJrNJe0gT-zwpElD https://youtu.be/j973645y5AA?si=QJrNJe0gT-zwpElD Seems like quite an engineering challenge with this new design...