Turbofan Engine SHM Patent Landscape 2026
Turbofan engine structural health monitoring IP is tightly concentrated: RTX Corp and Rolls-Royce together account for the majority of activity among the top ranked filers, with the United States as the dominant filing jurisdiction. The field has reached maturity, with annual volume plateaued near its 2017 peak, leaving limited open terrain except in adjacent sensing and propulsion sub-branches.
RTX Corp leads a tightly held, mature SHM patent corpus
RTX Corp sits atop the ranking with 33 patent records, more than double the next-ranked filer, Rolls-Royce PLC at 16 patent records. The top five filers’ share of the hundred largest filers’ combined total stands at 78%, signaling a highly consolidated competitive landscape where a small group of established aerospace OEMs controls the bulk of disclosed IP.
A meaningful tier gap separates the top two players from the rest of the field. United Technologies Corp holds 11 patent records at rank three, followed by General Electric Co at 4 and a cluster of smaller filers at 3 or fewer. Entrants outside the top three face a steep deficit in portfolio depth.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RTX Corp | 33 | |
| 2 | Rolls-Royce PLC | 16 | |
| 3 | United Technologies Corporation | 11 | |
| 4 | General Electric Co | 4 | |
| 5 | Oliver Crispin Robotics Limited | 3 | |
| 6 | PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA CORP | 3 | |
| 7 | GPMS International Inc | 2 | |
| 8 | Solar Turbines Inc | 2 | |
| 9 | BALFAN CORP | 2 |
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | АКЦИОНЕРНОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО "ОБЪЕДИНЕННАЯ ДВИГАТЕЛЕСТРОИТ… | 2 | |
| 11 | Rolls-Royce Corp | 1 | |
| 12 | Lovely Professional University | 1 | |
| 13 | Safran Aircraft Engines SAS | 1 | |
| 14 | The Boeing Company | 1 | |
| 15 | Siemens Energy Inc | 1 | |
| 16 | Coastal Marine Research Inc (CMR Tech) | 1 | |
| 17 | AECC Sichuan Gas Turbine Research Institute | 1 | |
| 18 | Meggitt SA | 1 |
The leaders’ positions reflect deep integration of SHM into core turbine design and maintenance programs. RTX Corp’s scale implies that SHM is embedded across multiple product lines rather than confined to a single programme, and Rolls-Royce’s comparable breadth across F01D and G01M sub-classes points to a similarly systematic approach.
Patent publication typically lags filing by 18–24 months, so counts for the most recent periods understate true current activity. Scope is limited to the 53 patent families indexed for this topic. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Filing volume plateaued after a 2017 peak; F01D dominates the technology mix
The annual trend chart and IPC composition together show a field that established its technical vocabulary early and has since maintained rather than expanded its filing footprint. Two charts capture these dynamics: the year-by-year filing count and the IPC branch breakdown.
Annual filing trend
Annual filings peaked in 2017 at 14 patent records and have since oscillated between 2 and 10 per year without a sustained upward trajectory. The 2024 and 2025 counts should be read as provisional given the publication lag inherent in patent systems; any apparent softness in the most recent years reflects indexing timing rather than confirmed withdrawal of activity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
F01D (Turbines and non-positive engines) commands 68 patent records, establishing turbine component monitoring as the dominant technical route. G01M (Testing machine and structure balance) follows at 35, and F02C (Gas-turbine plants) at 24 — together these three branches account for the core of SHM activity. Peripheral branches such as G01H (vibration and sound measurement), G01N (material analysis), and G01B (dimensional measurement) each hold single-digit counts, marking them as comparatively under-served relative to the dominant route.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Gas Turbine Engine Systems and Methods Involving V…
Gas turbine engine systems and methods involving vibration monitoring are provided. In this regard, a representative vibration monitoring method for a gas turbine engine includes: receiving information corresponding to detected vibrations of a gas turbine engine; isolating vibrations attributable to rotating blades of the gas turbine engine from the… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gas Turbine Engine Systems and Methods Involving V… | 93 |
| 2 | System and method for in situ airfoil inspection | 83 |
| 3 | Data acquisition system and method for monitoring … | 58 |
| 4 | Gas turbine engine debris monitoring arrangement | 46 |
| 5 | Gas turbine engine debris monitoring arrangement | 43 |
| 6 | In-flight balancing of fan on turbofan jet engine | 32 |
| 7 | Gas turbine engine and shaft | 26 |
| 8 | Auxiliary drive bowed rotor prevention system for … | 25 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the patent structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural reads — maturity, concentration, collaboration, and geography — each carry distinct implications for teams deciding where to position new SHM development efforts.
Field is at plateau: core routes are claimed, incremental filing ongoing
The lifecycle evidence places turbofan SHM in the Maturity stage, with annual filings plateaued near their 2017 peak and zero net growth in the recent window. The dominant F01D and G01M sub-classes are well occupied, making differentiated claims harder to secure without moving into adjacent sensing or data-processing branches. Teams entering now should map claim white space carefully before committing resources to the core route.
MaturityTop two players control the strategic high ground; the rest are fragmented
RTX Corp at 33 patent records and Rolls-Royce PLC at 16 together set the competitive ceiling. The top five filers’ share of the hundred largest filers is 78%, leaving minimal mid-tier portfolio depth. Challengers outside the top three hold at most 11 patent records, making it difficult to assert portfolio leverage against the leaders in licensing or freedom-to-operate negotiations. New entrants would need either niche differentiation or a collaborative path.
ConcentrationGeneral Electric and Oliver Crispin Robotics are the only documented co-filers
The collaboration evidence identifies a single active co-filing pair: General Electric Co and Oliver Crispin Robotics, with 3 joint patent records. This pairing — an OEM engine manufacturer and a specialist inspection robotics firm — points to in-situ robotic inspection as the primary collaborative sub-theme. No other co-filing relationships are evidenced in this corpus, suggesting that the broader field is developed through independent corporate programs rather than consortium activity.
CollaborationUS-centric filing with meaningful European coverage; Asia largely absent
The United States leads with 35 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 31 and the United Kingdom at 7. Canada holds 3 records and Russia 2, while China and India each register only 1 record. The near-absence of Chinese filings in a sector where domestic aviation is growing represents a notable gap, though whether that reflects strategic under-filing or scope limitations is not determinable from this evidence alone.
GeographyGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| General Electric Co | Oliver Crispin Robotics Limited | 3 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
RTX Corp leads by volume; Rolls-Royce anchors the challenger tier
The two dominant players are separated by a portfolio gap and differ in their technology sub-class emphasis, with RTX Corp’s breadth spanning turbine design, gas-turbine plant integration, and machine testing, while Rolls-Royce concentrates more narrowly on turbine component health.
RTX Corp
RTX Corp holds 33 patent records — the largest portfolio in this corpus. Its technology emphasis spans F01D 21 (turbine fault detection and shutdown), F02C 7 (gas-turbine plant auxiliaries), and G01M 15 (engine testing), reflecting an integrated approach that links real-time health monitoring to both component design and plant-level control. The momentum data marks RTX Corp as a new entrant in the recent measurement window, suggesting that a significant portion of its current portfolio has been filed or published recently, likely from a small prior base.
patent records: 33Rolls-Royce PLC
Rolls-Royce PLC holds 16 patent records and concentrates its activity in F01D 21 (turbine monitoring and protective devices) and F01D 5 (turbine blades and vanes), supplemented by G01M 15 (engine testing). This tighter sub-class focus relative to RTX Corp suggests a strategy centered on blade and vane health monitoring rather than broader system-level SHM. Momentum data for Rolls-Royce is not separately called out in the recent-entrant evidence, indicating its filing pace has been more stable over the observed window.
patent records: 16| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| RTX Corp | 8 | ▲ new entrant |
| Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp | 1 | ▲ new entrant |
| GPMS International Inc | 2 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant SHM route
Several IPC branches sit at the periphery of the core F01D / G01M cluster with low patent record counts. These are observations of relative sparsity; they warrant further technical and commercial validation before being treated as investment targets.
G01H · Vibration and acoustic measurement
G01H holds 11 patent records in this corpus — a low share relative to F01D’s 68. Vibration and acoustic sensing are technically central to turbofan SHM (blade-pass frequency analysis, bearing fault detection), yet this branch is comparatively thin. The General Electric / Oliver Crispin Robotics collaboration touches adjacent sensing territory. Teams with sensor hardware or signal-processing capability could find differentiated claim space here, though the dominant OEMs may be filing vibration-related work under the broader F01D classification rather than specifically in G01H.
Search this in Eureka →G01N · Material analysis and non-destructive testing
G01N holds 9 patent records, representing roughly 5% of the technology records in this corpus. Material characterization and non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods — including ultrasonic, thermographic, and eddy-current techniques applied to turbine components — sit in this branch. RTX Corp’s recent technology emphasis explicitly includes G01N 21 (optical and spectroscopic analysis), indicating at least one major player has begun moving into this space. Entry from NDE specialists or academic institutions could be feasible given the low existing count, though commercial leverage against the OEM leaders would require partnership or licensing pathways.
Search this in Eureka →How the leading filers diverge across IPC technology routes
Route coverage across the main technology branches in the current evidence set.
| Player | F01D 21 · Turbines & non-positive engines | G01M 15 · Testing machine & structure balance | F02C 7 · Gas-turbine plants | F01D 5 · Turbines & non-positive engines | F01D 25 · Turbines & non-positive engines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Technologies Corporation | Strong · 29 | Moderate · 13 | Strong · 17 | Moderate · 9 | Moderate · 9 |
| Rolls-Royce PLC | Strong · 13 | Moderate · 5 | Absent | Moderate · 5 | Absent |
| RTX Corp | Strong · 10 | Moderate · 3 | Emerging · 2 | Emerging · 2 | Absent |
| Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp | Strong · 3 | Strong · 2 | Strong · 2 | Moderate · 1 | Moderate · 1 |
| General Electric Co | Strong · 4 | Absent | Absent | Moderate · 2 | Moderate · 1 |
| Oliver Crispin Robotics Limited | Strong · 3 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 2 | Absent |
| BALFAN CORP | Strong · 2 | Absent | Absent | Strong · 2 | Absent |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence covers 53 patent families in scope. The United States is the leading filing jurisdiction with 35 patent records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 31.
RTX Corp holds the largest portfolio with 33 patent records, more than double the second-ranked filer, Rolls-Royce PLC at 16 patent records.
The field is at the Maturity lifecycle stage. Annual filings peaked in 2017 at 14 patent records and have since plateaued with zero net growth in the recent window. The most recent years should be read cautiously given the typical 18–24 month publication lag.
F01D (Turbines and non-positive engines) dominates with 68 patent records. G01M (Testing machine and structure balance) follows at 35 and F02C (Gas-turbine plants) at 24. Together these three branches represent the core technical routes.
The evidence identifies one active co-filing pair: General Electric Co and Oliver Crispin Robotics, with 3 joint patent records. This partnership focuses on in-situ robotic inspection of turbine components. No other co-filing relationships appear in this corpus.
G01H (vibration and acoustic measurement) at 11 patent records and G01N (material analysis and non-destructive testing) at 9 patent records are the sparsest branches with plausible technical relevance to SHM. G01B (dimensional measurement) at 8 and F02K (jet and reaction propulsion) at 7 are also comparatively thin.
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