Aircraft

Engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is heralding a potential “open rotor” renaissance as one of its strategic areas of research into next-generation powerplant technology.

Speaking at the fifth Aeronautic Days event in Vienna, R-R programme executive Nick Peacock outlined to delegates how the UK engine manufacturer would contribute to the €1.6 billion ($2 billion) Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) to speed up the entry into service of greener aircraft. “The difference that the JTI will make is significant. What we are talking about is a whole range of options. One thing we do know is that we have to think out of the box and a little further than simply extending the bypass ratio from 7 to 9. And, yes, we are looking at new configurations of open rotor engines as well as geared turbofans and counter-rotating turbofans,” he said.

The Clean Sky JTI, created by the European Commission within its Seventh Framework programme research effort, aims to persuade private enterprise to match public funding over the next seven years in a bid to reduce drastically aviation’s environmental impact. R-R will assume a leadership position within the JTI as a platform leader, selecting the engine technologies which to examine and develop.

Ric Parker, R-R’s director of research and technology, said: “We want to take our advanced experience of geared turbofans and build as much of that experience into an advanced open rotor engine – perhaps even with two rotors spinning in opposite directions.”