Bifurcated splitter for variable bleed flow

An air bleed assembly for extracting air from a flowpath in a gas turbine engine includes a casing for surrounding a row of circumferentially spaced apart rotor blades and defining at least in part the flowpath for receiving air compressed by the rotor blades. The casing includes a bleed port disposed downstream of a row of the blades for receiving a portion of the compressed air as bleed airflow and a bleed duct extending away from the bleed port. The bleed duct has an annular slot in the casing. The annular slot has annular slot leading and trailing edges and an annular bifurcated splitter disposed along at least a portion of the annular slot trailing edge. The bifurcated splitter has an annular leading edge forebody located upstream of and separated from an annular splitter wall by an annular return channel. In one embodiment of the invention, the rotor blades are fan blades and the annular bleed space is in the flowpath in a fan section of the engine. The annular bleed space is located between a fan variable vane disposed across the flowpath and one of the fan blades located downstream of the fan variable vane.