US Patent 11754021 Propulsion systems for aircraft

Aircraft propulsion systems including a closed loop-supercritical fluid system having a turbine, a cooler heat exchanger, a compressor, and a recovery heat exchanger arranged along a closed-loop flow path of a supercritical fluid. A shaft is operably coupled to the turbine and configured to be rotationally driven by the turbine. A fan is configured to generate thrust, the fan operably coupled to the shaft to be rotationally driven by the shaft. A burner is configured to combust a fuel and air from the fan to generate a combusted gas and supply said combusted gas to the recovery heat exchanger of the closed loop-supercritical fluid system and out an exhaust nozzle.