Open fan engine for more sustainable aviation

airbus.com

16 points·Kaibeezy··6 comments

Best/weirdest part saved for last:

> This is a puller configuration (blades at the front) where the rear set of blades does not rotate. These rear blades are effectively a set of variable-pitch ‘stators’ which can efficiently manipulate the thrust airflow generated by the rotating front set, while further reducing mechanical complexity, weight and noise.

What's strange about that? A rotor/stator system is indeed simpler, lighter, and quieter than a counterrotating system, which is what it's being compared to (see previous paragraph).

Where has it been done before? Ever on a production craft?

Jeez the way this page is written makes it so hard to understand the main points.

There's a few sentences about the fan and then it jumps around without ever summarizing the key points.

It's so full of filler words it hurts to read

> However, before any of the above objectives can be investigated, between now and the first demonstration flight in the second half of the decade, an intensive phase of Engineering preparatory work is planned.

instead of

"Intensive engineering work is planned before the first demonstration flight.

It's frustrating because it's not for us. We want to know "why? what's wrong with a duct?" But this isn't a technical brief, it's some kind of press release focusing on when and where Airbus will be spending money on this thing, probably for shareholders. I imagine that's why it reads like they're paid by the word.

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