Advanced Hypersonic Engine Manufacturing System

This project will increase the pace of high-speed airbreathing engine development and prototyping by deploying state-of-the art commercial additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities together with transformative design software in a hypersonic engine development shop with collocated design and test capabilities.  To accomplish this goal, our team will install the most advanced metal laser powder bed fusion machine and implement advanced generative design capability to produce engines incorporating high-performance thermal-structural heat-exchanger designs.  This integrated capability will significantly reduce the design/build/test iteration cycle time completing multiple one-piece, actively-cooled scramjet engine iterations within twelve months.  Further, the prospect of an AM engine build as a  one-piece, monolithic structure removes significant challenges with joining and sealing engine sections that will deliver benefits from reduced complexity, weight, integration, and cost during development, prototyping, and production.