The focus of research on marine propellers and aircraft propulsion is very much on incremental improvements to established marine screw propeller and axial jet engine design methodology. However, it is now very much a case of diminishing returns in terms of the further performance improvements that can be squeezed from the lineal development of these fully-mature device types. It certainly seems a shame that propulsion research & development is so tightly constrained to refining the jet engine concept that Whittle developed way back in the 1930s/1940s and the marine screw propeller that Brunei pioneered back in 1840s, without devoting a little more effort to exploring more fundamental alternatives.
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