US Air Force
Contract Continues Northrop Grumman's Work On Upper Stage Engine Technology
Program
(19 June 2007) A contract from the
U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) will allow Northrop Grumman
Corporation to continue technology development for the Upper Stage Engine
Technology (USET) program.
The program's goal is to design and
test a 40,000-pound thrust-class turbopump for liquid hydrogen propellants to
reduce risk in future upper stage engine procurements. Under this most recent
USET contract, the company will fabricate the critical turbopump assembly,
integrate it at AFRL's test facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and
perform validation testing by mid-2009. Software tools developed by the team
under the ongoing USET contract were used to design the turbopump and will be
integral to testing operations as well. The new contract is valued at US$ 10.9
million, bringing the total value of the program to US$ 30.8 million to the
company.
"Under the USET contract, we're developing advanced rocket
engine design tools that are broadly applicable to a wide variety of rocket
engine types and oxidiser and fuel combinations," said Tom Romesser, vice
president for technology development for Northrop Grumman's Space Technology
sector. The turbopump is being designed to meet challenging engine-level design
goals as specified by the government's Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion
Technology Program. Data from testing the turbopump at AFRL will validate the
analysis as well as the modelling and simulation accuracies of tool
improvements that have been made to greatly improve speed, robustness and
design optimisation capabilities.
The Northrop Grumman team has already
put to use the USET engine and thrust chamber assembly design tools on several
efforts outside of USET, with demonstrated substantial reduction in the cycle
time for engine design, along with optimised results. The validated design
tools from this program are reducing risk for future Air Force and industry
rocket engine development programs. Software tools developed by the team under
the ongoing USET contract were used to design the turbopump and will be
integral to testing operations as well.
Northrop Grumman is using an
integrated product team approach on its USET contracts. Team members are
Barber-Nichols Inc., Arvada, Colo.; Rolls-Royce Liberty Works, Indianapolis,
Ind.; Concepts NREC, White River Junction, Vt.; Texas A&M University,
College Station, Texas; Sierra Engineering Inc., Carson City, Nev.; and D&E
Propulsion and Power Inc., Mims, Fla.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a
US$ 30 billion global defence and technology company whose 120,000 employees
provide innovative systems, products and solutions in information and services,
electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers
world-wide.
(source: Northrop Grumman)