A turbofan engine for providing propulsive thrust to a supersonic aircraft is provided. The engine has an engine core comprising in flow series a compressor, a combustor and a turbine. The engine further has a fan located upstream of the engine core. The engine further has a supersonic intake for slowing down incoming air to subsonic velocities at an inlet to the fan formed by the intake. The engine further has a bypass duct surrounding the engine core, wherein the fan generates a core airflow to the engine core and a bypass airflow through the bypass duct. The engine further has a mixer for mixing an exhaust gas flow exiting the engine core and the bypass airflow exiting the bypass duct. The engine further has a thrust nozzle rearwards of the mixer for discharging the mixed flows, the thrust nozzle having a variable area throat. The engine further has a controller configured to control the thrust produced by the engine over a range of flight operations including on-the-ground subsonic take-off and subsequent off-the-ground subsonic climb. To achieve a high level of engine thrust during the take-off operation, the controller performs the take-off operation with a reduced area of the variable area throat, and to achieve a reduced jet noise after take-off, during the climb operation the controller increases the area of the variable area throat.
Supersonic aircraft turbofan
2018-09-05
Patent
Electronic Resource
English