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Tag: Jet Engine

  • Can We Just Start Using LEGO To Build Everything?

    Think about all the different components that goes into making an aircraft engine. The complexity and costs of each engine must be the reason why more people don’t build aircraft in their spare time. Rolls-Royce, maker of fine aircraft engines, has proven that all you need are LEGO.

    Rolls-Royce showed up at the Farnborough International Airshow yesterday with what they called a “novel jet engine ‘concept’.” It’s novel because the engine is made entirely out of LEGO – 152,455 pieces to be exact. The engine itself is a scale replica of the Rolls-Royce 1000, the engine that powers the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The idea was that the designers and engineers at Rolls-Royce could show people how aircraft engines work by displaying every moving and working part on a smaller scale.

    So how big is this thing? Over 150,000 pieces and eight weeks of construction must mean this LEGO creation breaks some kind of record. I’m not sure, but at 677 pounds and 6.5 feet long, it should break every LEGO record ever.

    Unfortunately, the LEGO jet engine won’t actually lift a plane into the sky, at least not yet. The children of the future, who are expected to attend the Airshow in mass quantity, certainly might fulfill my dream of a LEGO future. Graham Schumacher, Head of Development Services at Rolls-Royce, said that the LEGO engine was built in part to attract young people with the fun side of engineering. If I was a kid, I would want to be an engineer right away just to play around with LEGO.

    Check out the amazing pictures of the LEGO engine while you’re at it. It should be reiterated that this a fully working engine. That should make your nerdy sense start tingling if it already hasn’t.

    Can We Just Start Using LEGO To Build Everything?

    Can We Just Start Using LEGO To Build Everything?

    Can We Just Start Using LEGO To Build Everything?

  • NASA To Feed Jet Engine Crayons… For Science

    Recently NASA engineers at the Dryden Flight Research Center, feed crayons and cereal to a jet engine. No, the engine tests aren’t to see how well the Pratt & Whitney F117 turbofan engines hold up against a toddler. The tests are actually to test new sensors to help with managing the health of the engines while in flight.

    “The point of tossing cereal and crayons into the engine is to trigger some small change for the sensors to detect, without harming the engine,” said Dave Berger, a leader of the Vehicle Integrated Propulsion (VIPR) test series. “Once the sensitivity of the sensors is established, we will end with a real-world scenario by introducing volcanic ash, which really can – and does – tear up an engine.”


    Photos courtesy of NASA.

    The need for such an experiment and new sensors came to the forefront during the 2009 Icelandic volcano eruptions that disrupted air traffic worldwide for weeks. The overall tests on the engine will eventually lead to the introduction to volcanic ash which will destroy the engine.

    “Being able to take an overhauled engine and run it all the way to the end of its life through research experiments is a unique opportunity,” said Berger.

    In true NASA fashion, they also had to design and build two support structures for the experiment. The first was a 24-foot diameter water platform designed to sit below and in front of the research engine during ground testing, the second was a piece of support equipment that is an emission sensor rig designed to sit just behind the engine and sweep across the engine’s exhaust path in order to collect exhaust gases for emissions data.

    Based at Dryden, VIPR is funded by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, which manages the Aviation Safety Program.