Current Trends and Future Opportunities for Aircraft Engine Nacelle Industry

A nacelle is a housing that is separate from the fuselage and houses the engines, fuel or equipment of an aircraft. In some cases - for example in a typical "Farman" pusher aircraft or the P-38 Lightning from World War II - the cockpit of an aircraft can also be housed in a nacelle, which essentially fulfills the function of a conventional fuselage. The cover is typically aerodynamically shaped.

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Some of the key players of Aircraft Engine Nacelle Industry:

Safran, Boeing, Triumph, GKN, Nexcelle, MRAS, Bombardier, UTCGoodrich, Alenia Aermacchi

The Arado Ar 234 developed by the Nazis was one of the first operational jet aircraft with engines mounted in nacelles. This is known as the podded engine. During the development, the four engines of four different nacelles, each with their own wheel, were merged into two nacelles with two engines each. In recent years, General Electric and NASA have developed nacelles with chevron-shaped trailing edges to reduce engine noise in commercial aircraft. An experimental Boeing 777 was used as a test platform. Boeing developed this nacelle shape for the 787 Dreamliner.

For the most part, multi-engine aircraft will use nacelles to house the engines, referred to as podded engines. There are exceptions, however: in fighter jets (such as the Eurofighter Typhoon), the engines are usually mounted in the fuselage. In addition, some engine housings are integrated into the wings of the aircraft, e.g. B. those of the aircraft De Havilland Comet and Flying Wing. Motors can be mounted in individual nacelles, or on larger aircraft such as the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (picture right), two motors can be mounted in a single nacelle. Gondolas can be made fully or partially removable to accommodate consumable resources such as fuel and armaments. Gondolas can be used to house equipment that is too large to fit in the fuselage, e.g. B. the radome of the Boeing E-3 Sentry.