Abstract: Aircraft gas-turbine engines (10) are often mounted and supported by strut type structures (12) which contain fuel, oil, electrical and hydraulic engine supply lines. The engine fan (18) is surrounded by a belt (24) made of tough flexible material designed to restrict travel of broken fan blade pieces, ingested objects or other debris (20). The forward strut section (12), adjacent the belt (24), is located outside of the maximum belt deflection envelope (26) except for the engine right and left cowl hinges (62 and 64) and its support structure (30), which structure (30) is made collapsible. This collapsible cowl hinge structure (30) utilizes mechanical fuse connections (68) which upon a dislocation force from the belt (24) allows the structure (30) to disconnect from the strut support structure (12).

Abstract: The inlet of a turbofan jet propulsion engine is coupled to the engine fan casing via a unique uniflange coupling assembly. One of the inlet and casing components carries a radial flange while the other of the components carries a pair of radial flanges each spaced on opposite sides of the flange carried by the first component. A pair of toroidally shaped members are positioned respectively between the two pairs of spaced opposing abutment surfaces thus formed by the three flanges. Preferably the members are hollow, have flexible but substantially inelastic walls, and are filled with a fluid. These members allow the two components to angulate relative to each other while allowing loads to be transferred from the first component to the second component only in an axial direction. Other loads are transferred to the engine mounting structure through other linkage.