GE once thought super-efficient propfans were the future of air travel, until low fuel prices in the late 1980s moved fuel consumption down the list of priorities. Now, it's bringing them back with ...

The Boeing 747-500 was a proposed ultra long range jumbo jet powered by advanced propfan engines instead of traditional ...

CFM International’s new push to develop an open-fan engine – a design commonly known as a propfan – marks a return to technology that engine makers developed, then shelved, amid fluctuating oil prices ...

In the 1980s, Boeing unveiled the 7J7—a twin-aisle, propfan-powered aircraft designed to replace the aging 737 and 727 fleets. Promising 60% fuel savings and faster boarding, the 7J7 aimed to ...

WHEN A MODIFIED MD-80 airliner flew at the 1988 Farnborough air show in Britain, it was supposed to represent the future of air travel. One of its rear-mounted jet engines had been replaced with an ...

Ah nostalgia: hoop skirts, bobby-soxers, big-band swing and airliners with propellers pulling them through the skies. Remember? Get set for a dose of deja vu. NASA and a bevy of big-time aeronautical ...

Developing new aircraft powered by novel technologies such as un-ducted fans and hydrogen-burning engines remains essentially infeasible without billions and billions of dollars in direct government ...

THE TEST PILOT of the Boeing 727 idled two of his three engines, turned and aimed for a low pass over the runway at the Mohave Airport. At 200 feet above the ground, he streaked by at more than 300 ...

Propfans, advanced highly–loaded propellers, are proposed to power transport aircraft that cruise at high subsonic speeds, giving significant fuel savings over the equivalent turbofan–powered aircraft ...

WHEN A MODIFIED MD-80 airliner flew at the 1988 Farnborough air show in Britain, it was supposed to represent the future of air travel. One of its rear-mounted jet engines had been replaced with an ...