US Patent Issued to General Electric on Dec. 16 for "Preventing abnormal fan blade deflection or fan flutter with retroreflectors" (Ohio, Indiana Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,497,899, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to General Electric Co. (Evendale, Ohio).

"Preventing abnormal fan blade deflection or fan flutter with retroreflectors" was invented by Phillip Schultz (Cincinnati) and Drew Michael Capps (Avon, Ind.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system for preventing abnormal fan blade deflection or fan flutter includes an optical emitting source, an optical receiver, and a retroreflector for attachment to a fan blade of an engine. The system emits radiant flux from the optical emitting source towards the retroreflector when the engine is operating; receives an incident radiant flux from the retroreflector by...