alt Hacker News> Airbus is also assessing shielding the area of the fuselage closest to the engines to minimize the risk of a blade off — one or more composite blades breaking, which could dent or puncture the fuselage and, in the worst-case scenario, strike a passenger.
sightly terrifying
Replies
KolmogorovComp • yesterday at 5:49 PM
not more terrifying than sitting in any turboprop airplane.
in_a_hole • yesterday at 5:49 PM
I had a sharp intake of breath after reading this and then clicking through to see the header image of the article.
danparsonson • yesterday at 11:15 PM
Reminded me of this: https://youtu.be/j973645y5AA?si=QJrNJe0gT-zwpElD
Seems like quite an engineering challenge with this new design...
csours • yesterday at 5:57 PM
High bypass turbo fans do this as well, it's just in the fan/engine housing, not the fuselage.
roboror • yesterday at 5:44 PM
Yeah I'd think you'd need some serious shielding to prevent a puncture
The cowling of the current turbines serves the same purpose, but needs to cover 360 degrees of rotation, so it's heavier and draggier. The blades have a bit more angular momentum in the propfan than in a high bypass turbofan, but there's fewer of them.