US Patent 12091178 Aircraft engine with stator having varying geometry

An aircraft engine, has: an upstream stator having upstream stator vanes distributed about a central axis; and a downstream stator having downstream stator vanes distributed about the central axis, the downstream stator located downstream of the upstream stator, a number of the upstream stator vanes different than a number of the downstream stator vanes, the downstream stator vanes including: a first vane, a major portion of a leading edge of the first vane circumferentially overlapped by one of the upstream stator vanes; and a second vane differing from the first vane by a geometric parameter, the geometric parameter causing the second vane to have one or more of: a stiffness greater than that of the first vane, and a major portion of a leading edge of the second vane circumferentially overlapped by another one of the upstream stator vanes.