BOUNDARY LAYER PUMPED PROPULSION

Advanced Propulsion Inc. proposes a Revolutionary Concept (RevCon) integrated aircraft and propulsion system that provides aircraft drag reduction and propulsion system efficiency increase, thereby improving aircraft fuel efficiency by as much as a factor of two. The key feature is the ducting of a high fraction of the aircraft total boundary layer from distributed airframe inlets to turbofan engine(s) in the rear of the fuselage. This fully integrated, boundary layer pumping engine(s) will provide the sole propulsive thrust for the aircraft. API?s intent is twofold: First, to design the wing and fuselage configurations and boundary layer ingestion features for a very high fraction of laminar flow and greatly reduced parasitic drag. Second, to match the mass flow of the ingested boundary layer, the turbofan engine(s) and the aircraft cruise thrust requirement at the cruise design point to yield an extremely high level of propulsive efficiency. With reduced fuel loads, aircraft can be smaller, and less costly. With less drag and greater efficiency, aircraft can have higher performance. This integrated aircraft/propulsion technology is applicable to all types and sizes of subsonic airplanes.