An artist rendering of
what the small, fuel-efficient turbine engine might look like on a drone.
Credit: U.S. Air
force.
The U.S. Air Force is offering $2 million to whoever can
design a new and improved engine to power its airplanes.
The competition, known as Air Force Prize is open to
American citizens and permanent residents age 18 and older, as well as corporations
and research institutions in the U.S. The goal of the contest is to speed up the
development of a lightweight, fuel-efficient turbine engine, to power the
aircraft of the future.
This is the first time the Air Force, or any other branch of
the U.S. military, is offering a prize to stir up technological innovation among
the general public, said Lt. Col. Aaron Tucker, deputy chief of the turbine
engine division at Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
Even though AFRL, is full of smart people, Tucker said Air
Force engineers don’t own the market on new turbine engine design. And making
Americans to invent new military technologies in exchange of cash is already
proven way of conducting research and development of projects-----Look at
DARPA.
The objective of the new Air Force Prize is a bit different from
that of DARPA challenges. Contestants aren’t actually designing something new;
they are re-designing something old so that it can be used for new purposes.
Turbine engines have been used inside most large Air Force
Aircraft since around 1948. Before that, Airplanes that transported troops,
carried weapons and conducted surveillance had piston engines, same kind of
engines found in most cars.
A Kind of internal combustion engine, piston engines work
using a supply of hot air and fuel to build pressure inside the engine to move
a piston or cylinder, which in turn moves a handle and generate power.
But turbine engines, also known as gas turbines, work by
using high-speed fan that sucks air into the engine, where it is compressed,
mixed with fuel and then ignited. The burning gases expand inside the engine
and shoot out of the nozzle at the back of the engine. As a result, whatever is
attached is propelled forward.
Both piston and turbine engines have advantages and disadvantages.
The main advantage of the gas turbines is that they are much lighter than
piston engines, but the smaller the gas turbine is, the less fuel-efficient it
is.
This is what the Air Force hopes to find innovative ideas.
To register for the contest, participants need to submit a
design idea to the AFRL, where the experts will decide if the design is really
that of a turbine engine. But rather than defining exactly what would qualify as
a turbine engine in the contest rules, the AFRL decided to leave the definition
open to interpretation to allow for greater innovation from participants.
To win $2 million prize, participants must haul their engine
prototypes to the AFRL, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio.
Engines must pass the same 6-hour test two times. If the engine prototype can
work more than once, It’s likely worth developing further, Tucker said.
The winning engine will not be purchased by the Air Force
because $2 million isn’t enough to pay intellectual property rights of the kind
of the technology, Tucker explained. Instead, the Air Force is promoting the
contest with its industry partners, like Boeing, in the hope that these
partners will purchase the new turbine design engine, continue developing it
further and start incorporating it with the future aircraft.
Additional info is available at Air Force Prize, plus instruction
for how to register the competition, can e found on the contest website.
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