NASA, US Industry Advance Small Core Aircraft Engines

November 3, 2021

Illustration of the inner workings of a turbofan engine showing the reduction in fan blade size HyTEC hopes to achieve. (Credits: NASA)

The future of commercial flight is sustainable, efficient, and cleaner. To make this vision a reality, NASA working to develop highly efficient engines for future single-aisle commercial aircraft under its Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) project at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

The HyTEC team is working with GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney to address specific technical challenges associated with reducing engine core size. Smaller engine cores could produce about four times more power to be extracted from the engine. Evolving and shrinking an aircraft engine’s core will reduce fuel burn by 5-10%, creating a parallel reduction in emissions.

NASA expects to be ready for ground demonstrations of small core engines by 2026.

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