ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,421,868, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to Rolls-Royce plc.
"Shaft for a gas turbine engine" was invented by Russell Adkins (Derby, Great Britain), Mark Spruce (Derby, Great Britain), Christopher D. Jones (Chippenham, Great Britain) and Stephen C. Drew (Tamworth, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A shaft for a gas turbine engine includes a composite tube including a plurality of grooves extending along a longitudinal axis of the shaft. The shaft has a load fuse mechanism that has at least one metallic coupling that has a plurality of splines extending along the longitudinal axis of the shaft. Each of the plurality of spline...