Aircraft turbines have been turning the same way for almost 100 years: in circles. Until someone decided to change the rules of the game. Spanish engineer José Fernández Montes designed the oblong turbine, a new model that optimizes aircraft performance and threatens to revolutionize the way we fly… all over the world.
Aircraft turbines, those engines that propel them through the skies, work thanks to the rotation of their blades around an axis, similar to a fan. The problem is that this circular motion causes the blades to work unevenly: the tip travels further and faster than the part near the shaft. This causes inefficiencies, turbulence and higher energy consumption, drawbacks that Fernández Montes, an aeronautical engineer at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, set out to solve.
What did he do?
Afternoon after afternoon, in his spare time, after his days at Airbus, he devised, designed, optimized, printed prototypes, continued to optimize… that’s how he arrived at the oblong turbine.
What is special about the oblong turbine?
It breaks with the traditional design: its blades do not rotate in a perfect circle. Their blades are not fixed to an axis. So they can make an elongated path, with two parallel rectilinear sections and two semicircular sections. It describes, exactly, an “oblong” trajectory.
It is an air compressor that has:
Una housing with an internal rail, which guides the movement of a series of identical and equidistant blades.
Un mechanical transmission system that drives the movement of the blades.
Los brackets connecting the blades and the rail, which ensure a constant distance between the blades.
This new design allows each part of the blade to work more uniformly, with a constant speed across its entire surface as it travels along the linear section. This helps improve air compression and efficiency.
According to Fernandez’s calculations, the oblong turbine could save up to 10% of fuel. They can also operate on ships or in power generation systems.
There is still some way to go. More tests under real conditions are needed. But it is a project that can take off… and lead a sector of global giants. And it is a Spanish invention.
