Developing Sustainable and Adaptive Small Engine Manufacturing

ISSI is proposing to develop and demonstrate viability of a business model for open-source manufacturing of non-man-rated small military gas turbines from Air Force supplied designs. ISSI’s goal is to produce low quantities of non-man-rated small military gas turbine engines and deliver them to the Air Force and DoD customers for less than $100 per pound of thrust. The new business model will utilize conventional manufacturing methods as well as the additive manufacturing and 5-axis CNC machining capabilities now commonplace in the United States rather than the specialized methods historically employed. ISSI’s engine production model will be built around low quantities and low-cost from the outset and will be tailored to the intermittent acquisition environment often encountered as within the DoD. The focus on agile manufacturing capability will allow fast-response changes to design and requirements, owing to the lack of expensive tooling or specialized manufacturing processes and their associated sunk costs. The effort will focus on developing cost models of each engine component to inform trades on cost, quantity, materials, design features, reliability, and manufacturing processes. This cost information will be used to conduct a value stream analysis and break-even model to determine the financial feasibility of the business model.