NASA, US industry accelerate turbofan engine advancement

NASA is working to develop highly efficient engines for future single-aisle commercial aircraft under its Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) project at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The HyTEC team recently awarded six cost-share contracts with GE Aviation of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pratt & Whitney of Hartford, Connecticut, with a maximum combined value of $18.8 million. Both GE and Pratt & Whitney will match or exceed NASA’s investment during the contract period.

Under these contracts, GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney will help NASA address specific technical challenges associated with reducing engine core size, including:

Advanced high-pressure compressor – Develop casing treatments and advanced designs with smaller parts and tighter clearances to enable small core compressors that maintain operability while optimizing performance and efficiency.

Advanced high-pressure turbine aerodynamics – Enable more efficient turbine operation by developing advanced blade and cooling designs and aerodynamic features.

Enhanced combustor materials – Develop ceramic matrix composite (CMC) liners for combustors to increase performance and durability.

High-temperature turbine materials – Develop CMCs and environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) for turbine blades and vanes to increase temperatures and efficiency of turbines.

NASA believes evolving and shrinking an aircraft engine’s core will reduce fuel burn by 5%-to-10%, creating a parallel reduction in emissions. Smaller engine cores also could produce about 4x more power to be extracted from the engine. Increasing available energy is extremely important because future hybrid- and- turbo-electric aircraft will require tremendous amounts of power.

Tony Nerone, HyTEC’s project manager at Glenn, said, “By collaborating with industry over the next two years, we’ll leverage their unique capabilities, investments, and knowledge to develop engines that produce more electric power, are more durable, and perform the same or better than today’s turbofan engines while burning less fuel.”

NASA expects to be ready for ground demonstrations of small core engines by 2026. In the meantime, the agency and its partners will use an Electric Powertrain Flight Demonstration aircraft and the NASA Electric Aircraft Testbed to further develop components and validate the many benefits of electric flight before these technologies are ready for your next commercial flight.

GE Aviation will test and mature compact jet engine core designs, including compressor, combustor, and high-pressure turbine technologies to improve thermal efficiency. Continued development of advanced, heat-resistant CMCs is also a key part of the effort to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.

The new contracts build on a previous award GE Aviation received in 2020 and managed under the HyTEC program. The 2020 award focused on maturing power extraction technology for a next-generation turbofan engine program.

GE Aviation is developing compact engine core designs as part of the CFM RISE (Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines) Program, announced in June 2021.

Pratt & Whitney will leverage its recently opened CMC center of excellence in Carlsbad, California, and collaborate with Raytheon Technologies Research Center on the project. The technologies targeted by HyTEC include next generation CMC materials capable of operating at higher temperatures than current CMCs, environmental barrier coatings, and advanced cooling and aerodynamic approaches that will enable new component designs and efficiencies. By increasing the thermal efficiency of the high-pressure turbine, these technologies will contribute to greater fuel efficiency in future gas turbine propulsion systems.