The Rolls-Royce RB529 Contrafan was a high-thrust aircraft engine proposed by Rolls-Royce in the 1980s to power long-range wide-body airliners.

Development and design

The Contrafan was designed to power the four-engine Boeing 747 at a cruise speed of Mach 0.9. Like the General Electric Unducted Fan (UDF), the RB529 would have direct-drive contra-rotating fans in pusher configuration, and it would have variable pitch fan blades that were capable of reverse thrust. But a cowl would surround the fans of the engine, unlike the UDF.

The RB529 would have an engine core that was similar in size to the Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4,[1] a 40,100-pound-force thrust (178 kN; 18,200 kgf) turbofan engine that was used to power the Boeing 757 narrow-body airliner.[2]

Specifications

Data from Flight International, 6 September 1986, pp. 3-4[1]

General characteristics

Components

Performance

References

  1. ^ a b "R-R unveils the future". Farnborough First News. Flight International. September 6, 1986. pp. 3–4. ISSN 0015-3710. Archived from the original on April 19, 2014.
  2. ^ Allen, Roy (May 1987). "Rolls focuses on existing programs: Contrafan and Propfan get less emphasis". Powerplants. Airline Executive. Vol. 11, no. 5. p. 28. ISSN 0278-6702.

Bibliography

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