Variable Cycle Engines and Their Future
Within the scope of aviation, the two most used forms of aircraft engines are low-bypass turbojets and high-bypass turbofans. Turbojets are suitable for high performance and supersonic speeds, but suffer from low fuel efficiency. Turbofans, on the other hand, are popular for commercial aircraft and specialize in fuel efficiency and subsonic thrust, but do not perform well at supersonic speeds. For aircraft that fly mixed missions, being able to bridge these two types of functionality through the use of variable cycle engines (VCE) proves to be an important endeavor for the future of engine fuel systems and is expected to be fully realized in the foreseeable future.
For VCE to function, the use of an internal valve to control flow may be the answer. With a valve in the bypass stream, closing it would restrict flow to achieve low-bypass and supersonic flight, while the opposite would allow efficient subsonic flow. Variable Cycle Engine would prove very beneficial for the future generations of supersonic transport, reducing drag and minimizing the cross sectional area of the powerplant during supercruise with a high specific thrust. The downside would be that the jet velocity at takeoff would still be very high, causing the aircraft to be very noisy.
Currently, aircraft manufacturers such as GE Aviation are taking the first steps into the future of variable cycle engines. Their engine utilizes an outer flowpath to enable the control of the bypass ratio in order to achieve variable cycle. With the ability to achieve supersonic speed, as well as keep fuel efficiency, would extend operational abilities for the US Air Force and beyond. As of March of this year, GE has completed the detail design and is moving towards manufacturing, continuing the realized future of variable cycle engines.
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