Patent ID: 11952947
Assignee: RTX CORPORATION
Field: Engines, pumps, turbines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F  B  H | IPC F  H

Claim 11:
12. A method of operating a gas turbine engine comprising:
coupling a first electric motor assembly to a fan section including fan blades to provide a first drive input for driving the fan blades about an engine axis;
coupling a geared architecture driven by a shaft of a turbine section of the engine to the fan section for providing a second drive input to drive the fan blades, wherein the geared architecture includes a sun gear driven by the shaft of the turbine section, a plurality of intermediate gears supported in a carrier and circumscribed by a ring gear and by a driven gear engaged in contact with the carrier, wherein the sun gear is driven by the shaft of the turbine section and in turn drives the intermediate gears that drive the ring gear and the ring gear is coupled to a fan shaft to provide the second drive input;
coupling a second electric motor assembly to the driven gear of the geared architecture to rotate the geared architecture about the engine axis relative to a static engine structure;
controlling the first electric motor assembly and the second electric motor assembly to provide a combination of the first drive input and the second drive input to rotate the fan blades at predefined rotational speeds; and
the second electric motor assembly rotates the geared architecture in a first direction and in a second direction opposite the first direction to rotate the fan blades at the predefined rotational speeds, wherein the second electric motor assembly comprises a first electric motor that drives a first drive gear engaged in contact with the driven gear thereby rotating the driven gear in the first direction and a second electric motor that drives a second drive gear engaged in contact with the driven gear thereby rotating the driven gear in the second direction.