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Drone-B-Gone

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First layer or two of turbo jet fans hardened to grind up drones.

Slats on the cowling of the engine swing open to allow the ground up parts to fly out.

And like the previous post said, intelligent drone swarms are the weapon of the future.

Also like the previous post said, our enemies are usually pretty stupid.

doctorremulac3, Dec 31 2018

WS-125 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WS-125
"Two General Electric J87 turbofan engines were successfully powered to nearly full thrust" [8th of 7, Jan 01 2019]


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       //very thin, 1/8" or so blades//   

       Which will break.
EnochLives, Dec 31 2018
  

       <Sigh/>   

       <Wanders away, muttering about intake turbulence/>
8th of 7, Dec 31 2018
  

       //our enemies are usually pretty stupid// I see a problem.
MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 31 2018
  

       //very thin, 1/8" or so blades//   

       Flexible.   

       //intake turbulence//   

       Now you'd only turn these when there are drone threats of course. Then you'd feather them and there'd be very little disruption of air flow.
doctorremulac3, Jan 01 2019
  

       OK, let me try this again.
doctorremulac3, Jan 01 2019
  

       Is this not what was once known as a propellor?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 01 2019
  

       Well, no, an additional propeller would disrupt the airflow like 8 said before he walked away in disgust. This is just a hardened front part of the first few existing compressor blades with slats around the cowling that open to let the destroyed drone pieces out.   

       That being said, I'd like to see what happens when you try to fly a drone into a turboprop's intake in a wind tunnel. I'm guessing turboprops might already be incarnations of this basic idea.   

       Furthermore, a contra-rotating dual propeller turboprop like the Russian TU... whatever they're called, might naturally be completely impervious to drone attack. At least as far as its turbine intakes are concerned.
doctorremulac3, Jan 01 2019
  

       Tupolev Tu-95, NATO reporting name: "Bear".   

       Turboprops are fairly drone-resistant, much more so than fanjets, altho a Lockheed L-188 Electra with Allison powerplants was lost at Logan (Boston) due to bird ingestion.   

       // first few existing compressor blades with slats around the cowling that open to let the destroyed drone pieces out. //   

       Do you mean the fan ? If you vent the region around the first compressor turbine, then it will stop compressing, which from an engine point of view is a Bad Thing. If you vent around the fan, you can cause resonances which then trigger surges in the core, which are also Very Bad.   

       Any venting system is still going to have to be able to fully contain a catastrophic disc failure.
8th of 7, Jan 01 2019
  

       //compressor turbine, then it will stop compressing//   

       Yea, the fan, but the slots are closed air tight until an object strike is detected, then they fly open to let the pieces fly out.   

       They would open at an angle such that the pieces are directed backwards. The flaps would be hardened as well.   

       After the drone is chewed up and spit out the cowling flaps would snap shut again and the passengers could all laugh at the enemy who is stupid, as are most of our enemies. Plus they're smelly and ugly. (the enemy, not the passengers)   

       Or at least they are when we finish with them.
doctorremulac3, Jan 01 2019
  

       Turbofan designs are already strongly influenced by the requirement to manage an impact event. The fan blades are generally made of titanium, as are the first few core compressor stages. In reality most of the junk that gets ingested by the fan doesn't enter the core engine anyway because 90% of the airflow is bypassed directly into the cold nozzle. I can't see that a further series of vents in the outer engine cowling would improve matters since the debris is already on its way out anyway.   

       Debris ingested into the core engine is much more serious. Some engines do have a kind of vent in the core intake system which would help to spit out debris before it gets too far through. Best to arrange for it not to get there in the first place though.   

       Some future aircraft concepts do away with the traditional turbofan arrangement and feature a single gas generator powering multiple fans distributed around the aircraft. I think these concepts could be made more impact tolerant simply by having a non forward facing intake to the gas generator.
EnochLives, Jan 01 2019
  

       The obvious answer is to have the turbines inside the plane.   

       But seriously, can we conclude that there is no way to stop crap getting into the engine(s), be it screens (moving or not moving), flypaper, concentric circles of toffee apples, holy water, string or any of these in combination etc.   

       Including hammers.
not_morrison_rm, Jan 01 2019
  

       What about hammers?
Voice, Jan 01 2019
  

       You definitely need to keep hammers out of the intake, too.   

       // a single gas generator powering multiple fans distributed around the aircraft. // ... which was the concept underlying one of the USAF's nuclear-powered aircraft designs.   

       <link>
8th of 7, Jan 01 2019
  

       Perhaps what's needed is an ability to locally suppress frequencies operating on the drone remote control range, and to make it more difficult to acquire any that operate outside of that range. How the second is accomplished I'll not hazard a guess.   

       Maybe they should manufacture drones out of frozen chickens?
RayfordSteele, Jan 01 2019
  

       Presumably drones can be autonomously programmed. You know to within a few feet where the engine intake will be as the plane approaches the end of the runway for takeoff. Just pre-programme the drone to go there and wait, and release it so it just has time to get there.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 01 2019
  

       Escort interceptor drones?   

       Probably want them to be jet powered and equipped with nets rather than weapons that would just break it up creating a debris cloud.
doctorremulac3, Jan 01 2019
  

       Kessler cascade ?   

       // any that operate outside of that range. How the second is accomplished I'll not hazard a guess. //   

       With extreme difficulty, if at all, if the drone uses 3G/4G telephony as its control link. WCDMA is intentionally highly resistant to interference, intentional or unintentional.   

       // Presumably drones can be autonomously programmed. //   

       Yes - if not the basic ones, a Raspberry Pi will cheaply add the functionality you want.
8th of 7, Jan 01 2019
  


 

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