Originally Posted by
KenV
2. What would cause the fan blade to "rotate forward"? The fan is a compressor section. In other words, in a turbo fan engine the fan blade compresses the air, it does not accelerate the air like a propeller.
There is no substantial difference between an axial compressor, fan, and propeller. They all apply a rearward force on air, and therefore the air applies a forward force on the blade.
Further, the huge tension forces resulting from the massive centripetal acceleration of the blade will overwhelm any aero force pushing on the blade.
You've repeated this a few times, but never with any subtantiating argument. An intuitive appeal to the tension on a guitar string vs. the force of air blowing out of one's mouth, is naive and unconvincing.