An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft Air propulsion. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight.
Manufacturing industry
The largest manufacturer of
turboprop engines for
general aviation is Pratt & Whitney.
General Electric announced its entry into the market in 2015.
Development history
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1903: Manly-Balzer engine sets standards for later .
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1910: Coandă-1910, an unsuccessful ducted fan aircraft exhibited at Paris Aero Salon, powered by a piston engine. The aircraft never flew, but a patent was filed for routing exhaust gases into the duct to augment thrust.
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1914: Auguste Rateau suggests using exhaust-powered compressor – a turbocharger – to improve high-altitude performance;
[ not accepted after the tests]
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1918: Sanford Alexander Moss picks up Rateau's idea and creates the first successful turbocharger
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1926: Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar IV (S), the first series-produced supercharged engine for aircraft use.
[The world's first series-produced cars with superchargers came earlier than aircraft. These were Mercedes 6/25/40 hp and Mercedes 10/40/65 hp, both models introduced in 1921 and used Roots superchargers. ]
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2020: Pipistrel E-811 is the first electric aircraft engine to be awarded a type certificate by EASA. It powers the Pipistrel Velis Electro, the first fully electric EASA type-certified aeroplane.
Shaft engines
Reciprocating (piston) engines
In-line engine
For other configurations of aviation inline engine, such as X engine, U engine, H engine, etc., see Inline engine (aeronautics).]]
V-type engine
Horizontally opposed engine
H configuration engine
Radial engine
A radial engine has the cylinders placed in a circle around the crankshaft. The engine is air-cooled, which can be a problem since they may overheat. Compared to liquid-cooled engines, radial engines have the advantage of being more rugged and capable of absorbing damage.
Rotating Radial engine
Rotating radial engines have the cylinders in a circle around the crankcase, as in a radial engine, (see above), but the crankshaft is fixed to the airframe and the propeller is fixed to the engine case, so that the crankcase and cylinders rotate. The advantage of this arrangement is that a satisfactory flow of cooling air is maintained even at low airspeeds, retaining the weight advantage and simplicity of a conventional air-cooled engine without one of their major drawbacks.
The first practical rotary engine was the
Gnome Omega designed by the Seguin brothers and first flown in 1909. Its relative reliability and good power to weight ratio changed aviation dramatically.
Wankel engine
The
Wankel engine is a type of rotary engine. The
Wankel engine is about one half the weight and size of a traditional four-stroke cycle
piston engine of equal power output, and much lower in complexity. In an aircraft application, the power-to-weight ratio is very important, making the Wankel engine a good choice. Because the engine is typically constructed with an aluminium housing and a steel rotor, and aluminium expands more than steel when heated, a Wankel engine does not seize when overheated, unlike a piston engine. This is an important safety factor for aeronautical use. Considerable development of these designs started after World War II, but at the time the aircraft industry favored the use of
turbine engines. It was believed that
turbojet or
turboprop engines could power all aircraft, from the largest to smallest designs. The Wankel engine did not find many applications in aircraft, but was used by
Mazda in a popular line of
sports cars. The French company Citroën had developed Wankel powered
helicopter in 1970's.
In modern times the Wankel engine has been used in where the compactness, light weight, and smoothness are crucially important.
Combustion cycles
Starting in the 1930s attempts were made to produce a practical aircraft diesel engine. In general, Diesel engines are more reliable and much better suited to running for long periods of time at medium power settings. The lightweight alloys of the 1930s were not up to the task of handling the much higher compression ratios of diesel engines, so they generally had poor power-to-weight ratios and were uncommon for that reason, although the Clerget 14F Diesel radial engine (1939) has the same power to weight ratio as a gasoline radial. Improvements in Diesel technology in automobiles (leading to much better power-weight ratios), the Diesel's much better fuel efficiency and the high relative taxation of AVGAS compared to Jet A1 in Europe have all seen a revival of interest in the use of diesels for aircraft.
Thielert Aircraft Engines converted Mercedes Diesel automotive engines, certified them for aircraft use, and became an OEM provider to Diamond Aviation for their light twin. Financial problems have plagued Thielert, so Diamond's affiliate — Austro Engine — developed the new AE300 turbodiesel, also based on a Mercedes engine.
Power turbines
Turboprop
Turboshaft
Electric power
A number of electrically powered aircraft, such as the
QinetiQ Zephyr, have been designed since the 1960s.
[.] Some are used as military drones.
[.] In
France in late 2007, a conventional light aircraft powered by an 18 kW electric motor using lithium polymer batteries was flown, covering more than , the first electric airplane to receive a certificate of airworthiness.
[.]
On 18 May 2020, the Pipistrel E-811 was the first electric aircraft engine to be awarded a type certificate by EASA for use in general aviation. The E-811 powers the Pipistrel Velis Electro.
Many big companies, such as Siemens, are developing high performance electric engines for aircraft use, also, SAE shows new developments in elements as pure Copper core electric motors with a better efficiency. A hybrid system as emergency back-up and for added power in take-off is offered for sale by Axter Aerospace, Madrid, Spain.[ Axter Aerospace]
Reaction engines
Jet turbines
Turbojet
Turbofan
Advanced technology engine
The term
advanced technology engine refers to the modern generation of jet engines.
Pulsejets
Gluhareff Pressure Jet
Rocket
Rocket turbine engine
A rocket turbine engine is a combination of two types of propulsion engines: a liquid-propellant rocket and a turbine jet engine. Its power-to-weight ratio is a little higher than a regular jet engine, and works at higher altitudes.
["Analysis of the effect of factors on the efficiency of liquid rocket turbine" by Zu, Guojun; Zhang, Yuanjun Journal of Propulsion Technology no. 6, p. 38-43, 58.[2]]
Precooled jet engines
Piston-turbofan hybrid
At the April 2018 ILA Berlin Air Show,
Munich-based research institute
Bauhaus Luftfahrt presented a high-efficiency composite cycle engine for 2050, combining a
geared turbofan with a
piston engine core.
The 2.87 m diameter, 16-blade fan gives a 33.7 ultra-high
bypass ratio, driven by a geared low-pressure turbine but the high-pressure compressor drive comes from a piston-engine with two 10 piston banks without a high-pressure turbine, increasing efficiency with non-stationary isochoric-
isobaric process combustion for higher peak pressures and temperatures.
The 11,200 lb (49.7 kN) engine could power a 50-seat
regional jet.
Its cruise TSFC would be 11.5 g/kN/s (0.406 lb/lbf/hr) for an overall engine efficiency of 48.2%, for a burner temperature of , an overall pressure ratio of 38 and a peak pressure of .
Engine position numbering
On multi-engine aircraft, engine positions are numbered from left to right from the point of view of the pilot looking forward, so for example on a four-engine aircraft such as the Boeing 747, engine No. 1 is on the left side, farthest from the fuselage, while engine No. 3 is on the right side nearest to the fuselage.
In the case of the twin-engine English Electric Lightning, which has two fuselage-mounted jet engines one above the other, engine No. 1 is below and to the front of engine No. 2, which is above and behind.
Fuel
Refineries blend Avgas with
tetraethyllead (TEL) to achieve these high octane ratings, a practice that governments no longer permit for gasoline intended for road vehicles. The shrinking supply of TEL and the possibility of environmental legislation banning its use have made a search for replacement fuels for
general aviation aircraft a priority for pilots’ organizations.
Model aircraft typically use (also known as "glow engines" due to the use of a glow plug) powered by glow fuel, a mixture of methanol, nitromethane, and lubricant. Electrically powered model airplanes
See also
Notes
External links
