ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,286,941, issued on April 29, was assigned to General Electric Co. (Evendale, Ohio).

"Reverse thrust turbofan engine" was invented by Trevor Howard Wood (Clifton Park, N.Y.), Thomas Malkus (Albany, N.Y.) and Kishore Ramakrishnan (Rexford, N.Y.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A turbofan engine may include a variable pitch fan rotatable about an axis and operable in a forward thrust mode by generating flow opposite a direction of travel and in a reverse thrust mode by generating flow in the direction of travel. In reverse thrust mode, a nacelle assembly defines an intermediate opening disposed aft of the variable pitch fan. A flow guide assem...