Grant opportunities lead way to innovation at AEDC

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  A board of directors with Arnold Engineering Development Complex's (AEDC) prime contractor, Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA), is providing opportunities to ATA employees to propose innovation ideas and receive grants to implement the ideas.

Employees may be awarded a grant if the proposed innovation has the potential to produce significant cost savings, productivity improvements, improved quality of deliverables, or enhanced customer satisfaction promoting new customer business for AEDC.

"The Innovation Grant Program is important because our future will be different from our past; in what work we do and in how we do the work," said Louis Vanacore, an ATA director. "We can continue with our past practices or we can engage and create our future."

The program's evaluation board members recently awarded a $25,000 grant for the first cycle of the program to the Turbine Engine Component Testbed (TECT) team.

The grant will enable the team to develop laboratory equipment that improves development of new turbine engine test hardware and techniques while giving young engineers hands-on experience.

The team, comprised of Steve Arnold, Rylan Cox and Jonathan Lister - all are engineers in the ATA Integrated Test and Evaluation Aeropropulsion Products Branch, recognized that advanced propulsion systems designs are highly integrated with airframes and will require new test techniques to ensure proper system performance.

"We're used to testing the engine in a straight pipe basically, but they [the advanced propulsion systems] are going to be highly integrated with the airframe so I think we need to come up with some new ways to test these vehicles," Arnold said.

Arnold recalled how the bi-fold doors for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter lift fan generated a pressure distortion pattern causing significant vibrations on the fan blades and the F-35 team made design changes to the doors without the benefit of ground flight testing. The result was the development of a modification called the "57 Chevy Hood" design.

Arnold said, "That's [doors and engine] not something we would typically test, so we are trying to get our engineers thinking about how to work with these systems by actually building some of them."

This new approach to testing the advanced propulsion systems in regards to integration with the airframes would open up more avenues for testing at AEDC and provide important skills for the Complex's engineers.

The team's idea was presented using a 'Shark Tank' approach. An individual or team presents their innovation idea to a selection committee and sells the value of their proposal to AEDC.

So far the team has developed a blade design and acquired engine hardware. The program encourages military and AF civilian participation. AEDC DOD Engineer Josh Hartman's afterburning engine, the JH-01, will be utilized for the TECT's development process.

They also began planning for engine installation at the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) utilizing their Non-contact Stress Measurement System (NSMS) Development Rig to analyze inlet configuration and blade vibration for the team's engine. The team will also enlist guidance from AEDC's Modeling and Simulation group.

Arnold said, "Our legal department is working on a contract to begin working with UTSI and hopefully we will begin testing this month."

The innovation grants program differs from other ATA idea programs like the continuous improvement and suggestion programs in that it seeks greater learning and exploration performed by those proposing the idea.

The program awarded nine grants for the first cycle of proposals. Evaluation and awards for the second cycle is currently underway. The program will continue for eight more cycles in FY2014 and FY2015.

Innovation proposals for the third cycle are due Sept. 15. For more details contact Louis Vanacore at 454-7063.