15 May 2017
Price Induction and NASA Glenn Research Center Collaboration is Celebrated with the First Engine Run
NASA Researchers will benefit from the DART Project (DGEN380 Aero-propulsion Research Turbofan) for years to come.
Price Induction, the developer of the DGEN 380 turbofan, is proud to announce the conclusion of a WESTT BR platform installation at the NASA Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory at the Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland Ohio USA.
The installation is the result of an 18 month project that was initiated in 2014 when the use of the DGEN 380 engine as an acoustic research tool was validated by NASA after testing in GRC’s anechoic chamber.
The Price Induction and NASA teams collaborated closely to adapt the DGEN380 engine and its associated testing platform to NASA’s specific needs. Two of the most challenging aspects of the project were the design of a fully mobile system and significant modifications of the engine’s internal architecture while keeping all operational and safety aspects unaltered.
In April of this year, a group of NASA engineers attended five days of intense training conducted by Price Induction engineers from France. As shown on the pictures below, the official first engine cycles were run by Dr. Daniel Sutliff, lead researcher and DART project manager during an internal inauguration.
NASA is one of a few client benefitting from the real DGEN 380 engine test bench (WESTT BR) and the virtual engine test bench (WESTT CS/BV) both provided by Price Induction. NASA and Price Induction have committed to develop their collaboration around propulsion research in the long-term.
Price Induction would like to take this opportunity to thank NASA for its confidence during this challenging project.
See Dr D. Sutliff interview on his visit to our test bench last year: https://youtu.be/-HfxqLFIDN4