Preliminary Fan Design for a Silent Aircraft

Preliminary fan design for a functionally silent aircraft has been performed with noise reduction as the primary goal. For such an aircraft the fan design must, in addition to delivering low cruise fuel burn, enable low jet and fan source noise during takeoff. This requires the fan to be operating at low pressure ratio and high efficiency during takeoff and, for conditions where the relative tip Mach number onto the fan is supersonic, ensuring the primary shock structure is ingested into the blade passage. To meet these requirements, flyover and cruise flow coefficients are matched using a variable area nozzle at the same time as delivering low takeoff FPR. This places the sideline operating point near the shoulder of the characteristic and fixes the top of climb and cruise fan pressure ratios. For a 4-engine, $250pax$⁠, $4000nm$ silent aircraft this approach leads to a top of climb FPR of 1.45, requiring a 39% increase in nozzle area at takeoff. A fan rotor has been designed for this cycle with 20 blades, low tip loading during takeoff, and a $350m∕s$ top of climb tip speed.