Geared Turbofan Reduction Gearbox Patents: Who Leads 2026
- 90.7% concentration. The top five assignees account for 1,195 of 1,318 records in scope — this is a field with almost no room for a new entrant to build a position by volume.
- Filing rebounded, not faded. Filings rose from 63 in 2021 to 113 in 2024, a 79% increase over that span, even though the peak year on record remains 2019 at 204.
- Gearing itself is a minority claim. Only 24.7% of records carry an F16H gearing/transmission class — most of the corpus sits in F02C gas-turbine plant claims, meaning gearbox-specific mechanical detail is comparatively thin.
Filing growth compares 2021 (63 records) with 2024 (113) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,318 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this dataset covers
The geared turbofan reduction gearbox sits at the mechanical core of modern high-bypass engines: a planetary gear stage that lets the fan turn slower than the low-pressure turbine, improving propulsive efficiency. This landscape covers 1,318 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from claims and descriptions referencing planetary reduction gearboxes, fan drive gearboxes and related mechanical elements — tooth profile modification, flexible support, journal bearings, oil jets, mesh efficiency and planet carriers.
Because a single family can generate several publications across jurisdictions, the record count above is best read alongside the assignee ranking, which is expressed in the same units. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate actual filing activity.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,318 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how it distributes across IPC subclasses that a record can carry in combination.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran from 113 in 2017 to a peak of 204 in 2019, then rebuilt from 63 in 2021 to 113 in 2024 — a 79% increase across that three-year window. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up to filing dates, so they should not be read as a decline.
IPC subclass composition
F02C (gas-turbine plants) touches 69.6% of the 1,318 records, and F01D (turbines) touches 40.4% — both far ahead of F16H (gearing and transmissions) at 24.7%. That gap suggests most filings frame the gearbox as one element within a broader engine architecture claim rather than isolating gearing mechanics on their own.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,318 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Geared Turbofan Reduction Gearbox with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about geared turbofan reduction gearbox and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA representative claim on the gearbox mechanism
Journal bearing for rotating gear carrier
A gear system for a geared turbofan engine includes a sun gear, a planet gear supported in a carrier and engaged to the sun gear, a forward journal bearing and an aft journal bearing both supporting the planet gear. The carrier includes a forward wall supporting the forward journal bearing and an aft wall supporting the aft journal bearing. A ring gear is engaged to the planet gear. A geared turbofan engine is also disclosed.Filed by RTX Corporation, published 2019-10-15 — one of the field's structural claims on carrier-supported journal bearings.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US7021042B2 | Geartrain coupling for a turbofan engine | 484 |
| 2 | US4827712A | Turbofan gas turbine engine | 384 |
| 3 | US20080317588A1 | Managing spool bearing load using variable area flow nozzle | 267 |
| 4 | US4782658A | Deicing of a geared gas turbine engine | 246 |
| 5 | US4751816A | Turbofan gas turbine engine | 234 |
| 6 | US8261527B1 | Gas turbine engine with geared turbofan and oil thermal management system with unique heat exchanger structure | 168 |
| 7 | US20110286836A1 | Geared turbofan engine with integral gear and bearing supports | 118 |
| 8 | US20180252166A1 | Geared turbofan | 115 |
| 9 | US6964155B2 | Turbofan engine comprising an spicyclic transmission having bearing journals | 106 |
| 10 | US6855089B2 | Reduced twist carrier | 96 |
Citation counts accumulate over time and favour older filings; treat them as a signal of influence within this corpus, not of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing strategy
Three findings shape where a new filing is likely to clear prior art, and where it is not.
The field is a five-player game
Top 5 combined filings reach 1,195 of the 1,318 records in scope, and the top 10 extend that to 98.6%. A long tail of single-filing entrants exists below that line, but it holds essentially no share of the record base.
Activity rebuilt after a mid-cycle dip
Filings fell from the 2019 peak of 204 before recovering from 63 in 2021 to 113 in 2024. That is a genuine rebound in a complete-year window, not an artefact of publication lag.
Gearbox mechanics are often a supporting claim
F02C gas-turbine plant classifications appear in 69.6% of records and F01D turbine classifications in 40.4%, well ahead of F16H. Most filings anchor gearbox innovation inside a broader engine or turbine claim rather than filing gearing mechanics standalone.
Filing is concentrated in a small set of offices
The United States leads with 552 records, followed by the EPO at 345, with UK, Germany and Austria each contributing over 80. WIPO/PCT filings sit lowest among the offices listed at 38.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to geared turbofan reduction gearbox, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum has cooled
The ranking is dominated by a small number of engine manufacturers with decades of continuation filings; momentum data shows even the leaders pulling back from recent peaks.
One assignee holds more than half the top-5 total
The leading assignee's 675 records exceed the combined total of the next four ranked companies. That scale reflects both organic filing and consolidation of related corporate entities across jurisdictions.
A steep drop after the leader
Fifth place holds 48 records, and tenth place only 5 — the ranking falls away quickly outside the top few names, leaving a genuine long tail rather than a gradual slope.
Recent-year filings are down across the board
Leading assignees show sharp year-over-year declines in the latest year, from -85% to -100% depending on the company. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this likely reflects incomplete data for the most recent filing year rather than an actual pullback in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Rolls-Royce plc | 3 | -85% |
| General Electric Company | 1 | -94% |
| United Technologies Corporation | 0 | — |
| Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG | 0 | — |
| RTX Corporation | 0 | — |
| GE Avio S.r.l. | 0 | -100% |
| Rolls-Royce Corporation | 0 | — |
| Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated field with specific mechanical sub-areas that remain comparatively open. The next step is turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate position.
Map claim scope against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 675 of 1,318 records, any new filing in core gearbox mechanics needs a clause-level comparison against that portfolio before drafting.
Explore assignee claims in Eureka →Test white-space sub-areas for novelty
Oil jet targeting, flexible support tuning and tooth profile modification each carry lighter claim density than the F02C/F01D core — worth a dedicated novelty search before committing R&D.
Run a novelty search in Eureka →Track momentum, not just headcount
Recent-year declines across leading assignees may reflect publication lag rather than reduced R&D; revisit the trend once 2025-2026 data fills in.
Set up monitoring in Eureka →Common questions on this landscape
It is highly concentrated. The top five assignees account for 1,195 of the 1,318 records in scope, which is 90.7% of everything published in this landscape. Extending to the top ten pushes that to 98.6%, leaving only a small long tail of single-filing entrants among the 58 companies in the full ranking. A new entrant should assume that almost any core mechanical approach has already been claimed by one of a handful of established engine manufacturers.
Filing activity rebuilt over the most recent complete years: from 63 records in 2021 to 113 in 2024, a 79% increase. The single peak year on record remains 2019 at 204 filings, so current activity has not returned to that peak, but the trend across 2021-2024 is upward, not downward. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower only because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those years are still filling in.
US10443708B2, assigned to RTX Corporation, claims a gear system for a geared turbofan engine using a sun gear, a planet gear supported by both a forward and an aft journal bearing within a carrier, and a ring gear engaged to the planet gear. It is specifically anchored on the carrier structure — a forward wall and an aft wall each supporting one of the two journal bearings. A design that supports the planet gear through a different bearing arrangement, such as a single bearing span or a rolling-element bearing rather than dual journal bearings, sits outside this particular claim structure, though it should still be checked against the wider RTX and Rolls-Royce portfolios.
Start with F02C (gas-turbine plants), which touches 69.6% of the 1,318 records in this landscape, and F01D (turbines and non-positive engines) at 40.4%. F16H (gearing and transmissions) is narrower at 24.7% but is the most direct match for gearbox-specific mechanical claims. Because records often carry several IPC codes at once, searching across all three in combination gives a fuller picture than any single class alone.
Comparatively lighter claim density shows up around oil jet lubrication targeting for planet gears, flexible support compliance tuning, tooth profile modification for mesh efficiency, journal bearing wear monitoring and planet carrier structural load paths. These sit as supporting mechanical detail inside a field dominated by broader gas-turbine and turbine architecture claims (F02C and F01D), rather than being claimed on their own. That does not guarantee novelty, but it does mean these sub-areas carry less prior art density than the core planetary gear train claims held by the leading assignees.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.