Breaking the Manufacturing Barrier: How RTS Enables Toroidal Propellers

The greatest barrier to innovation is often the assumption that constraints are fixed... ⛔ Have you ever wondered why propeller design has stayed roughly the same for a century⁉️ Two or three blades, spinning fast, pushing air backwards. It works, but it's noisy, and more often than we'd like, the shape is driven by what's practical to manufacture rather than what's aerodynamically optimal.

Toroidal propellers have been around as a concept for over 30 years, the design concept cuts noise significantly, reduces turbulence, and improves thrust efficiency. For drones, electric aircraft, and air taxis, that's a compelling combination. So why aren't they everywhere❓ They're a NIGHTMARE to manufacture❗

At iCOMAT, we developed a process called Rapid Tow Shearing - RTS💡 In short, it allows carbon-fibre tapes to be steered around complex curves without creating defects. Most composite manufacturing places fibres in straight lines. RTS follows the natural geometry of the structure instead.

Through the EU-funded TorPropel project, we're now putting that to a real test. We're producing composite toroidal propeller demonstrators at our facility in Gloucester, with one clear aim: show that this propeller concept can actually be built reliably, not just designed on a screen.

What RTS brings:

💡 Stronger, more durable parts — fibres follow the load paths rather than being stacked in standard layers

💡 Higher quality laminates — far fewer wrinkles, gaps or defects

💡 More design freedom — stiffness and weight distribution can be dialled in far more precisely

Sustainable aviation needs propulsion that's lighter, quieter and more efficient. TorPropel is one of the projects helping close the gap between what engineers can design and what manufacturers can actually build. 👍 The future of flight won't just depend on bold ideas. It'll depend on whether we can build them.

Sometimes that comes down to steering a fibre in the right direction.