Shrouded Fan Propulsors for Light Aircraft

Continued growth of general-aviation over the next 10-15 years is dependent upon continuing improvement in aircraft safety, utility, performance, and cost. Moreover, these advanced aircraft will need to conform to expected government regulations controlling propulsion system emissions and noise levels. An attractive, compact, low-noise propulsor concept, the Q-FAN, when matched to reciprocating or rotary combustion engines, opens up the exciting prospect of new, cleaner airframe designs for the next generation of general-aviation aircraft, which will provide these improvements and meet the expected noise and pollution restrictions of the 1980 time period. In this paper, Q-FAN propulsion system performance, weight, noise, and cost trends are discussed. The impact of this propulsion system on the complete aircraft is investigated for two representative aircraft size categories. Examples of conceptual designs for Q-FAN/engine integration and aircraft installations are presented.