How is a Power and Propulsion System designed?
At Rolls-Royce, design begins with the airframe requirements. The Tempest airframe has two main requirements: thrust propulsion, and electrical power. The airframe manufacturer will state what levels of thrust they expect the propulsion system to produce during certain scenarios. For example, the engine will be expected to produce enough thrust such that the fully-laden aircraft can go from a stand-still to cruising altitude in less than 5 minutes. There are also requirements which state that the engine must produce enough thrust to enable sustained high-G turn rates. However, Tempest also requires large levels of electrical power – more than has ever been produced by a jet engine before. Rolls-Royce is now integrating electrical and mechanical engineering to build a high-performance power and propulsion system.
All of these requirements are collected and a jet engine thermodynamic cycle, as well as electrical generation and distribution system, is simulated using computer models. The design is iterated until it has satisfied the necessary performance requirements, and met the mandatory safety and regulatory requirements. All the engine components are then designed and manufactured to physically replicate, as close as possible, the simulated computer models.