Aircraft with fuselage-mounted engines and an internal shield

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9359085-B2
Application number	US-201213724360-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2012
Priority date	Dec 28, 2011
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

Internal shield in the rear fuselage of an aircraft having a propulsion system formed by two engines mounted on each side of it; the rear fuselage having at least a vertical symmetry plane; the rear fuselage being made of a composite material; the internal shield being located in said vertical symmetry plane and extended in an area that covers the possible trajectories of a set of pre-defined fragments detached from one of said engines in a failure event that would impact on critical elements of the opposite engine; the internal shield having a flat shape and an energy absorption capability that allows stopping said fragments. The invention also refers to a method for determining the area of an internal shield and to an aircraft having said internal shield.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An aircraft comprising a propulsion system formed by two engines mounted on each exterior side of a rear fuselage by pylons; the rear fuselage having a curved shape with at least a vertical symmetry plane and a central longitudinal axis, the rear fuselage being made of a composite material, the rear fuselage comprising a skin and a plurality of frames arranged perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis, the rear fuselage being made of a composite material, wherein the rear fuselage comprises an internal shield the vertical symmetry plane in an area that covers the possible trajectories of a set of pre-defined fragments detached from one of the engines in a failure event that would impact on critical elements of the opposite engine, the internal shield having a flat shape and an energy absorption capability that allows stopping said fragments, and the internal shield is formed by a plurality of panels joined to a supporting structure attached to the rear fuselage.

2. The internal shield according to claim 1 , wherein the internal shield made of a rigid material or of a deformable material or of a combination of several layers of rigid and/or deformable materials.

3. The internal shield according to claim 2 , wherein the rigid material is one of the following: titanium, high performance steel, aluminum, carbon fiber reinforced material, glass fiber reinforced material, ceramic material.

4. The internal shield according to claim 2 , wherein the deformable material is one of the following: an aramid dry fabric, a poly-paraphenylene-2 6-benzobisozazole (PBO) dry fabric, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers (UHMWPE).

5. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the two engines are turbofan, turboprop or propfan engines.

6. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the internal shield is formed by a unitary piece attached to the rear fuselage.

7. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein each panel has a constant thickness.

8. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the energy absorption capability of the internal shield is comprised between 5-100 kJ.

9. The aircraft according to claim 8 , wherein the energy absorption capability of the internal shield is comprised between 5-15 kJ.

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sl

Inventors

• Folch Cortés Diego
• Vinué Santolalla Eduardo
• Martino González Esteban
• Guillemaut Julien
• Goya Abaurrea Pablo

Classifications

• B64D45/00 Primary

  Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• B64C1/06 Primary

  Frames; Stringers; Longerons {; Fuselage sections} · CPC title

• B64C1/10

  Bulkheads · CPC title

• B64D27/02

  Aircraft characterised by the type or position of power plants · CPC title

• Y02T50/66

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic