Commander, professor to present papers March 20

  • Published
  • By Darbie Sizemore
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  The Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) commander and an associate professor of aerospace engineering from the University of Kansas will present papers at this month's technical excellence seminar at 11:30 a.m. March 20 in the Main Auditorium. 

Col. Art Huber will discuss revitalizing the technical excellence of AEDC's work force and Dr. Ron Barrett-Gonzalez will discuss the history of the "dark horse of the jet engine family" - the Gluhareff pressure jet engine. 

Both papers were presented at the 46th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit in Reno in January. 

Invented by Eugene M. Gluhareff more than 50 years ago, the Gluhareff pressure jet engine is one of the more unrecognized classes of jet engines in the technical community, something Dr. Barrett-Gonzalez attributes to confluence of circumstances. 

"First, the inventor, although a degreed, trained aerospace engineer, never published in the technical press," Dr. Barrett-Gonzalez said. "Accordingly, high level researchers would never see it in the likes of the AIAA Journal or the Journal of Propulsion and Power. He served on no technical committees and only worked for government labs and aerospace companies for a few years. 

"The second major obstacle that I see is that many people simply confuse, and therefore dismiss, the engine as a pulsejet or ramjet, which are well modeled. So although it is an athodyd like ramjets and pulsejets, it is decidedly different. The third strike is that it has been trapped in the hobbyist/homebuilder market for decades. Like so many good ideas that no major lab or company can claim as 'their own,' the engine suffers from the "not invented here" stigma from this bottom rung of the aerospace community." 

In the 1970s and 80s, Gluhareff advertised "build your own jet engine kits" in the back of magazines like Popular Mechanics and Popular Science.  Dr. Barrett-Gonzolez, as a college junior, was one who answered the as, bought the kit and built the engine. "The 'build your own jet engine'  ads in the back of the magazine were just irresistible," he said. "So, I bit the bullet and actually answered the ad. I paid $270 for the kit and $70 to a certified aircraft welder and was the proud owner of a real, working jet engine. My friends are still jealous." 

Dr. Barrett-Gonzalez said he believes that, aside from the 'goodness' factor of understanding an interesting slice of aerospace history, the fundamental operating characteristics of this engine could lead to a whole new class of both athodyds and turbines. 

"Gene Gluhareff figured out how to use fuel as the primary working fluid to generate an increase in kinetic energy of the flow through an engine," he said. "This is decidedly different than the way that modern engines run which is to manipulate air and combustion by-products as the primary working fluids within the engine." 

While researching the engine for an AIAA paper, which he co-authored with Gluhareff's daughter, Irina, Dr. Barrett-Gonzalez explored the inventor's private archives and saw quite a number of very futuristic engine designs which take advantage of this principal of extracting kinetic energy from fuel flow. 

"I believe that by combining these unknown design philosophies and modern engine design techniques, conventional turbine specific fuel consumption (SFC) and thrust-to-weight (T/W) ratios can be incrementally improved and several new engine classes can be born. Given the nontrivial number of world-class propulsion engineers on hand at AEDC, certainly one or several should be interested in collaborating with our lab as we clean off and cleave this lost gem of the aerospace propulsion world."