WINTER 2009

PURDUE AERONAUTICS & ASTRONAUTICS

Astronaut ScholarAAE senior balances studies with NASA co-op experience

Strange Brew Researchers cook up gelled rocket fuels

Bringing Solar Home? Energy solutions

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Winter 2009

School of Aeronautics & AstronauticsProfessor and Head....................................Thomas N. Farris

Professor and Associate Head.................Marc H. Williams

Director of Development...................................Nathan Wight

Engineering Communications OfficeDirector, Marketing and Communications............Rwitti Roy

Managing Editor..............................Linda Thomas Terhune

Editor.............................................................Barbara Leonard

Graphic Designer.....................................................Jiawei Yue

Contributing Writers.........................................Joseph Fowler William Meiners

Emil VenereGina Vozenilek

Proofreader.........................................................Lynn Hegewald

AAE Impact is published by the Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics for alumni, faculty, students, corporate partners, and friends. We welcome your comments. Please send them to the following address:

AAE Impact Purdue University 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd., Suite B120 West Lafayette, IN 47906-4153 E-mail: peimpact@purdue.edu

Articles herein may be reprinted by nonprofit organizations without permission. Appropriate credit would be appreciated.

To make a gift to AAE, please contact: Nathan Wight School of Aeronautics & Astronautics Purdue University 701 W. Stadium Avenue West Lafayette, IN 47907-2045 (765) 494-9124

Purdue is an equal access/equal opportunity university. Produced by the Engineering Communications Office.

On My MindWelcome to the winter 2009 edition of AAE Impact. The theme of this issue is sustainability, and, as you will read, AAE is involved in some very exciting “green” initiatives.

What is most striking about the school’s work on sustainability initiatives is the degree to which our alumni in particular have taken their Purdue degrees and

are having a significant impact on the world’s ability to sustain resources and explore real-world alternative energy solutions.

We are proud of our alumni who are helping to lead the charge in important initiatives like solar-energy solutions. Join us as we look at some of AAE’s sustainability successes as well as faculty, staff, and alumni news from around the school.

Thomas N. FarrisHead, School of Aeronautics & Astronautics

UP FRONT

A message from the head of Aeronautics and Astronautics

AROUNd AAE

Book of Great Teachers Rankings on the rise Research Symposium Series winners 2008 Outstanding AAE’s 1

IN MY VIEW

An expert’s point of view from Bill Gerstenmaier, AAE alum and NASA administrator 3

COVER FEATURE

Alumni work towards solar energy solutions 4

UP CLOSE: STUdENTS

Tim Duquette balances studies with NASA co-op experience 8

UP CLOSE: FACULTY

Researchers cook up gelled rocket fuels 9

UP CLOSE: ALUMNI

Purdue alum Chris Peters is bringing alternative fuel technology to the U.S. 10

CAMPAIGN IMPACT

Alumnus Allen Novick’s enduring commitment to AAE 11

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Don’t be a stranger. We want to hear from you!Tell us what you think by sharing your Purdue memories or reacting to a story in this issue. We invite you to write to us via the contact information at right. In do-ing so, you grant us permission to publish your letter in part or in whole in an up-coming issue. We also reserve the right to edit letters for length and/or clarity.

The School of Aeronautics and Astronautics is proud to announce that two faculty members were inducted into Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers in 2008. Steven Collicott and James Longuski, both professors of aeronautics and astronautics, were recognized at the August 28 induction ceremony.

Book of Great Teachers

Steven Collicott James Longuski

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gerial styles and different approaches to problem solv-ing. One of the biggest chal-lenges for any major interna-tional aero-space project is coordinating top-level deci-sions. We all have different budget processes and political priorities, so it can be hard to stay in step. Another challenge is learning to effectively manage in a multicultural environment and ensure all parties are on the same page. Cultural background changes the way technical information is presented and received.

Q: What’s the next frontier for NASA?

A: The next generation of Earth and space science missions will be driv-ing our new knowledge about global change, the origins of the universe, and conditions on Mars. Aeronautics research has the challenge of ex-panding the capacity of air transport in the crowded skies of the coming decades. And we’re resuming the quest to extend human presence beyond low-Earth orbit, building an outpost on the moon and prepar-ing for eventual expeditions to Mars. Exploration in space with robot-ics and humans is teaching us more about ourselves and our planet than any endeavor on Earth ever could. Our country is great because, even in tough financial times, we dare to spend money on exploration. That in-vestment yields benefits in technology and radically changes our view of our world and universe.

A World View from SpaceAn expert’s point of view from alumnus and NASA adminstrator Bill Gerstenmaier

As NASA’s associate administra-tor for space operations, William H. Gerstenmaier directs the organiza-tion’s human exploration of space and has programmatic oversight for the international space station, space shuttle, space communications, and space launch vehicles. Gerstenmaier received a BSAE from Purdue in 1977 and an MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Toledo in 1981. He also completed coursework for a doctorate in dynamics and control with emphasis in propulsion at Purdue University. Here he shares his insights on the accomplishments and future potential of aerospace exploration.

Q: As a veteran of more than 30 years in the aerospace industry, what do you see as the most significant development(s) over that time?

A: The scope of space programs has gone through a tremendous expan-sion. The military has incorporated space-based assets into almost every facet of its operations. Commercial activities using space assets are mak-ing space an active part of the global economy. Satellite communications, internet conductivity, and the role of global positioning systems for every-day folks are huge. More countries are building space capabilities. India has a satellite conducting scientific observa-tions of the moon, and NASA has two scientific instruments on it. With the shuttle and the International Space Station, we have developed the ability to actually work and live in space and have written a new chapter in interna-tional cooperation.

Q: In your opinion, what challenges does the industry face today?

A: We’re facing a big demographic challenge over the next decade, as a large fraction of our current work-force heads for retirement. We need to bring new talent into the industry and give them the experience necessary to become broadly competent profes-sionals. Often, projects are so com-plex, with such extended development cycles, that young engineers can wind up spending a lot of their careers in narrow compartments and don’t get to see their work tested in flight. We need to look for small, short-term projects that new engineers can learn on and be able to make mistakes. Universities also can help by providing some of this small project-management experience.

Q: What personal satisfaction do you get from your work with NASA?

A: It’s a privilege to work with a group of folks who take on challenges that are greater than one individual alone could solve. I love the feeling I get when we’re solving problems as a team, fusing the talents of highly competent people, and fulfilling our objectives.

Q: As someone who has worked extensively with the Russian Space Agency, what challenges and special opportunities do you feel arise from international collaboration in aerospace exploration?

A: The Russians are justifiably proud of their heritage and capabilities in aerospace engineering, and we’ve learned a lot through our partner-ship with them. It’s been especially beneficial to observe different mana-

Bill Gerstenmaier

Rankings on the Rise Purdue Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering has moved up in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. In the maga-zine’s 2008 national rankings of undergraduate programs, AAE ranked #4, up from #6 in 2007.

•First Place: Joseph Gangestad, The Dynamics of Lorentz Spacecraft with Application to a Mission to Enceladus•Second Place: Matthew Borg, Effect of Freestream Noise on Roughness-Induced Transition for the X-51A Forebody•Third Place: Allen Yan, MilliNewton Thrust Stand Calibration Using Electrostatic Fins•Best Undergraduate Presentation: Saad Tanvir, An Experimental and Modeling Study of the Premixed Syngas Combustion•Best Abstract: Bradley Wheaton, Towards Mechanism-Based Models for Transition Induced by Isolated Roughness: Experiments on the Nozzle Wall of the Mach-6 Quiet Tunnel

AAE Congratulates Research Symposium Series WinnersThe Research Symposium Series is a department-sponsored forum for graduate students and advanced-level undergraduates to present their research to a general audience. Winners are recognized for excellence in technical presentation skills. Five AAE students were honored in 2008.

L-R are Saad Tanvir, Prof. Li Qiao, Allen Yan, Prof. Ivana Hrbud, Prof. James Longuski, Joseph Gangestad, Prof. Steve Schneider, and Matthew Borg (Bradley Wheaton, not pictured)

Purdue Outstanding Aerospace Engineers Award 2008Eight AAE alumni were honored during the ceremony in October.

•Kenneth B. Sanger Director and program manager, Ground-Based Midcourse Defense European Site Program, The Boeing Company•Timothy A. Kinnan President, Wallace Lighthouse Consulting Group• Markus B. Heinimann Chief design engineer for aerospace structures, Product Design and Development Division, Alcoa Technical Center•Troy M. Gaffey Senior vice-president research and engineering, (retired), Bell Helicopter Textron•Walter Eversman Curators’ Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology•Wayne Eckerle Vice president of Corporate Research and Technology, Cummins, Inc.• Frank H. Bauer Chief engineer, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA•Darryl W. Davis President, Advanced Systems, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems

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Winter 2009

olar panels began appearing on random rooftops in suburbia several decades ago, but the solar revolution has been slow to catch on. Although the power of the sun is plentiful, safe, and clean, the rise of solar energy as a major component in the world’s energy portfolio has faced some major challenges. Scientists have wrestled with questions about how to capture sunlight most efficiently, how to store that energy, and how to draw upon

those stores as needed.

Beyond the basic science that can make solar energy work, there is another fundamental issue that must be addressed before solar power can be considered a major player in the energy industry: affordability. For solar energy to make a differ-ence, it must be competitive with the cost of traditional energy sources.

In the years since the first photovoltaic panels began adorning the homes of well-intentioned environmentalists, the sci-ence of solar energy has been answering these challenges slowly but steadily. Two firms blazing the trail are lead by Purdue engineers. In Santa Monica, California, SolarReserve, headed up by president and chief executive officer Terry Murphy (BSAAE ’80) and chief operating officer and head of development Kevin Smith (BSME ’79), has designed a way to generate utility-scale power using so-called concentrated solar thermal energy. Jim Miller (BSAAE ’86) is applying his broad experi-ence with supply-chain logistics and aerospace engineering to the promising market of solar energy with his Silicon Valley-based firm, Sierra Crest Consulting. These industry experts are convinced that the dawn of solar energy is finally on the horizon.

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Winter 2009

The secret is in the salt

In the vast, sunny expanse of the Mojave Desert outside Barstow, California, stands a towering achievement in solar energy science. It’s a tower, called Solar Two, encircled by hundreds of heliostats that reflect and concentrate sunlight onto the tower’s receiver—solar capture technology that has been around for a long while. But SolarReserve, partnering with a group of scientists from Hamilton Sundstrand Rocketdyne, has found a way to store that energy efficiently and disburse it on demand—a breakthrough in solar know-how.

“We’re turning the sun into the solution,” says Murphy. “Our facilities are engineered by the same team at Rocketdyne that built the Space Station power systems, the space shuttle main engines, and the Apollo moon rocket propulsion systems. The molten salt power tower was thoroughly validated by the Department of Energy at the Solar Two pilot plant, and it’s ready for worldwide deployment.”

Murphy explains the technological nitty gritty. Solar energy captured by the receiver is transferred as heat to molten salt, which is then stored in large insulated tanks. The stored energy is converted into steam on demand,

which turns turbines to create electricity. “The secret sauce, if you will, is salt,” he says. The molten salt is a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate, which in solid form can be used as garden fertilizer. This environmentally friendly material has a high boiling point and can achieve temperatures over 1000° F and still remain a liquid.

“The inherent storage capacity of concentrated solar thermal energy means we can actually match demand,”

says Murphy. “We can operate through the haze and with clouds, because we have decoupled the power gathering from the power generation,” he explains, “so you don’t have that intermittency that comes with wind or rooftop photovoltaic solar.”

With photovoltaic cells, by contrast, cloud cover can slash operational efficiency from 100 percent to zero percent. The new technology improves on that tremendously. Over the course of the day, the energy loss in the salt storage tanks is minimal—less than one percent. “With the storage of energy in the salt, we can produce electricity 24/7,” Smith states. “We can collect as much energy as possible during the day, and when the sun goes down, we can still produce power.”

SolarReserve plans to build 30 to 40 commercial power plants worldwide over the next 10 years. The first will be constructed in Spain and is scheduled to go online in 2012. “I would have liked to see the first one in the U.S.,” says Smith, “but Spain simply has the more fruitful market.”

Smith describes a frustrating irony about the Spanish location: the plant they build in Spain will work around the clock to produce an impressive 50 mW of power, but the same plant, were it to be constructed in the ideally sunny U.S. desert southwest, could produce 150 mW of power to be dispatched on demand over 10 hours. The economic implications of this contrast demonstrate Spain’s commitment to green energy. They also illustrate how much more cost effective this technology would be if deployed at home in the United States. “We’re confident that the new administration will have a more aggressive renewable energy policy,” Smith says.

Toward “grid parity”

One thin dime. That’s the maximum price per kilowatt hour it can cost for any alternative energy industry to

compete with traditional petrochemical-based energy. “‘Grid parity’ is the holy grail of all alternative fuels,” says Miller. He estimates the cost of producing solar energy today to be between 25 and 40 cents per kilowatt hour. “It’s not competitive now,” Miller admits. “But by 2010 or 2012, it will be. Technological advances are occurring at a rapid pace now,” he says.

The kind of advances he is seeing in the field, plus the “incredible” investment that businesses and venture capitalists are starting to pour into the solar industry, are the two complementary factors that encouraged him to start Sierra Crest Consulting. A Purdue aerospace engineering graduate with master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and business from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Miller’s career has woven together science and business very effectively. Now he has his sights set on the solar industry.

“I see a lot of opportunity in supply-chain management of the solar energy industry,” he says. His firm helps commercialize solar-energy by evaluating technologies and products. They help clients find funding, determine cost competitiveness, reduce costs, decide where to build facilities, and expand their scale capabilities.

Miller notes how far the industry has come. “The solar industry used to consist of two kinds of people: zealots, who were building solar panels in their garages, and

technologists, who were people with advanced degrees fleshing out the science of solar. Neither group could build a company able to compete and achieve grid parity,” he says.

Now, with increased pressure to find alternatives to fossil fuels and the science to back up the promise of solar energy, venture capitalists with “clean tech” portfolios want in. “And they are in it to win,” says Miller. He sees solar becoming an important American business with a great potential for growth. Solar energy now provides less than one percent of the nation’s power, but Miller predicts it could be supplying up to 15 percent of the national energy demand by 2020.

Beyond the crucial utility-scale solar advances being pioneered by companies like SolarReserve, Miller also points to exciting and effective new applications for solar energy. Solar panels are becoming more aesthetically pleasing and cheaper for homeowners to install. The technology is now even being incorporated into individual roof shingles. Capturing ambient heat in attics and off roofs to heat water is becoming a possibility, too. What’s more, large commercial buildings are beginning to lease their rooftops for solar panel installation. Big-box stores in the near future could even generate enough of their own energy to be able to unplug from the grid and become energy independent.

Solar energy is clearly on the rise. “What used to be a young, immature industry has almost reached the tipping point,” Miller says, “and there’s no turning back now.”

Kevin Smith

SolarReserve

Terry Murphy

SolarReserve

Jim Miller

Sierra Crest Consulting

Solar Two: revolutionizing solar capture technology

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Astronaut ScholarAAE senior balances studies with NASA co-op experience

Like a lot of kids his age, Tim Duquette saw the movie “Apollo 13” (released in 1995) and first dreamed of working for NASA, maybe even becoming an astronaut. Now a se-nior in aeronautics and astronautics, Duquette has already had an in-ternship and several co-op stints at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Time will tell if he ever makes it to outer space.

The Western Springs, Ill., native looked fairly closely at the University of Illinois, but Purdue’s international reputation, first-class facilities, and renowned cooperative education program drew him to West Lafayette. “The fact that Purdue has gradu-ated 22 astronauts didn’t hurt either,” Duquette says.

From his first days on campus, Duquette has taken one of the College of Engineering’s toughest majors head-on. He credits timing,

luck, and a good connection in land-ing his internship at Marshall the sum-mer after his freshman year. There he researched potential technologies and provided a report to his superiors. “Not a lot of responsibility,” he admits, “but it did leave the door open for more opportunities.”

He began his co-op program at Marshall in the manufacturing area in spring 2007, actually becoming a fed-eral employee. As part of that group, he was looking at how to assemble the upper stage of Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle, which will replace the space shuttle around 2015. “It was pretty exciting,” Duquette says. “Doing the manufacturing, you got a good idea of what all was in the rocket, instead of being focused on just one part.” He would later transition into a design team, followed by the Space Shuttle Main Engine Systems team.

Last summer, Duquette was named an Astronaut Scholar by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which sup-ports 19 students annually across the country. Founded by the six surviv-ing astronauts of the Mercury Seven program, the scholarship is a way to promote continued science and technology research in the U.S. “The scholarship is not necessarily focused only on space,” Duquette says, “but that’s where my interests lie.”

Alternating his campus studies with semesters of real-life work experience, Duquette says the co-op simply gives him a better perspective on his class work. “It helps so much in understand-

AAE student Tim Duquette in the atrium of Armstrong Hall

ing the overall scheme of where your learning fits in the actual engineering world,” he says.

Duquette has now spent five terms in Marshall (including three successive summers), and this is only his second spring semester on campus. Still, some advanced credits from high school will allow him to graduate only one semester behind his original freshman classmates. And while being an Astronaut Scholar is an impressive resume builder, it’s no guarantee of a space flight. “That would be pretty cool,” he says of astronaut ambitions. “I wouldn’t be able to do it for another 10 or 15 years, and it’s not something you can really plan for. You can make yourself available for it and have all the right qualifications. But there are a lot of other people out there, so you have to have another job that you really enjoy in case you don’t get selected.”

His federal-employee status at Marshall will make for an easier transi-tion into full-time work at NASA. From there, he can work toward a master’s degree or even enroll in a graduate co-op program. For now, he’s looking forward to possibly meeting Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks played him in the movie) at the annual Astronaut Hall of Fame reunion that the Astronaut Scholars are invited to.

And should good fortune, timing, and a connection or two be part of his future, maybe Duquette could find his own image on a poster of astronauts who got their start at Purdue.

■ William Meiners

Timothee Pourpoint, a research assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, is in charge of de-signing and operating a new Purdue lab to test gelled rocket fuels that have the consistency of orange mar-malade. The fuels are designed to improve the safety, performance and range of rockets for space and mili-tary applications, and the research will involve a team of engineers and food scientists. Standing in the new lab are, from left, Tim Phillips and Mark James, both graduate students in aeronautics and astronautics, Pourpoint, and Travis Kubal, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.

Strange BrewResearchers cook up gelled rocket fuels

Engineers and food scientists are teaming up to develop a new type of gelled fuel the consistency of orange marmalade to improve the safety, per-formance, and range of rockets for space and military applications.

“This is a very multidisciplinary proj-ect,” says Stephen Heister, a profes-sor of aeronautics and astronautics who is leading one of two teams on the project, funded by the U.S. Army Research Office.

The team includes researchers from mechanical engineering, aeronautics and astronautics, food science, and agricultural and biological engineer-ing at Purdue, as well as researchers from the University of Iowa and the University of Massachusetts.

Gels are inherently safer than liq-uids because they don’t leak. They also would allow the military to control rockets better than is possible with the solid fuels now used, according to Heister.

Paul Sojka, a professor of mechani-cal engineering and an associate director of the project, is building an experiment containing a transparent window to take high-speed videos of the gelatinous fuel’s behavior. Jets of the gel form during the fuel-injection process.

“These jets are wiggling, and there are pulsations. Those pulsations, we believe, lead to the formation of spe-cific spray patterns and droplet forma-tion,” Sojka says. “The fluid mechanics of gels are quite challenging. The viscous properties of the gel changes

depending on how fast it’s flowing, which is not true of liquids.”

The project will tap the expertise of food scientists and “food engineers,” who are accustomed to working with gels. “Gels are more complex than or-dinary solids and fluids,” says Carlos Corvalan, an associate professor of food science. “Fluids are characterized by viscosity, and solids are character-ized by elasticity. Because gels share properties of both solids and fluids, they possess viscoelastic properties.”

Food science and agricultural engi-neering researchers will study these viscoelastic properties and create simulations describing how the gels behave.

Future rockets could require that gelled propellants be sprayed by fuel injectors into a motor’s combustion chamber at rates of thousands of pounds per second. Using the gelled propellants, however, will require a thorough knowledge of how the fuel breaks into droplets as it is being sprayed into the chamber.

Most of the Army’s ground-to-air missiles currently use solid propel-lants, which have inherent limitations. Unlike conventional rockets running on solid propellants, motors using gelled fuels could be throttled up and down and controlled more precisely, Heister said.

“You can turn the engine on and off, you can coast, go fast or slow,” he says. “You have much greater control, which means more range for missiles. The gelled propellants also tend to

have a little more energy than the solid propellants.”

Researchers will first work with wa-ter-based gels that simulate fuels and will eventually conduct experiments using actual propellants at the univer-sity’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories.

“It’s kind of like orange marmalade without the rind,” Heister says. “We are going to make this gel and push it through holes and study how it flows and how big the drops are. Eventually we’ll study the real gelled fuels, which can be quite hazardous and reactive, so we will use them in small quantities and under tightly controlled condi-tions.”

The three-year, $6.4-million “spray and combustion of gelled hypergolic propellants” project is a U.S. Army Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, or MURI, which began last summer and could be extended an-other four years to 2013. Another team is led by Pennsylvania State University. ■ Emil Venere

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Propelling Purdue ForwardAlumnus’ enduring commitment supports Purdue’s aeronautical engineering program

In September 1960, a young Purdue engineering student from a small town in Massachusetts was wander-ing the campus when he spied a low, single-story building. Above its doors were written the words “Aeronautical Engineering.” Allen S. Novick (BSAAE ’64, MSAAE ’68, PhD ’72), a high school math scholar looking for his en-gineering niche, thought, “Aeronautical engineering…that sounds nice. That’s what I want to be.” He might otherwise have chosen mechanical engineering, but those were the Space Race days, and for Novick, all it took was one look at that unassuming building with the catchy name over the door.

Novick walked through those doors and never really came out again. He stayed to earn his bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD from Purdue, and he won its prestigious Distinguished Alumnus award in 2006. His devotion to the school persists as university executive liaison for Rolls-Royce. That means a lot of meetings in West Lafayette for the vice president of market intelligence, but it also lands him seats at a lot of basketball and football games at his alma mater, a perk that pleases this Boilermaker. “The interaction with the university and the company is a wonderful opportunity for me. I get to meet a lot of nice people,” Novick says of his frequent visits to campus.

Novick’s connection with the university is certainly more than fun and games. Of Rolls-Royce’s network of 29 worldwide University Technology Centers (UTCs), Purdue is the company’s only one in North America. That

Synthesizing Fuel Solutions Purdue grad brings German alternative fuel technology to the Americas

If you take organic matter and apply the principles that nature uses to convert solar energy into fossil-fuel sources, you get the synthetic fuel SunDiesel.

Manufactured by the German com-pany CHOREN, the renewable, syn-thetic fuel has garnered the attention of carmakers and environmentalists. Now, with Purdue alumnus Chris Peters at

the helm of its American subsidiary, the company is hoping the United States takes notice.

Peters (BSAAE ’01, MSAAE ’02) re-turned to his native Hamburg, Germany, after graduating from Purdue. Following a stint in the research and develop-ment department of BMW, he joined CHOREN, which focuses on the ad-

vancement and commercialization of biomass to liquid synthetic fuels via the Fischer-Tropsch process. CHOREN’s core technology is a biomass gasifier that converts organic matter into syn-thesis gas and then converts this gas into SunDiesel. Its name is derived from the process that is used: C (carbon), H (hydrogen) and O (oxygen) are convert-ed into RENewable energy.

After time at the company’s Beijing coal gasification sales office, Peters was assigned to develop CHOREN’s presence in the Americas. In 2007, he launched CHOREN USA. From his office in Houston, Texas, he spends a large portion of his time devising and implementing lobbying strategies at both the state and federal level, creating business plans, securing financing, managing human resources, and overseeing IT management.

A long way from student days in Aeronautics and Astronautics? Maybe not.

“Purdue’s AAE program offers a great, well-rounded education for aerospace engineers, but there is much more than that,” he says. He advises students to take advantage of what the program and the faculty have to offer beyond the basic curriculum.

“It is my experience that no project is too expensive, no task is too com-plicated, and no curriculum is set in stone,” he says. “Take advantage of the great variety of courses outside of the engineering curriculum. Choose them wisely, as they come in handy in your life in all sorts of unexpected ways.”■ Joseph Fowler

research relationship was formalized in 2003 with the establishment of the High-Mach Propulsion Laboratory at Purdue, and Novick is excited about the synergy that results. “It’s great because the researchers (at the UTC) can work without the pressures of the bottom line,” he says.

The affiliation is fruitful for both enti-ties. “We get results technologically,” Novick says, “but we also get close to the researchers.” Novick notes that Rolls-Royce’s support of Purdue’s re-search in the field, particularly in gas turbine technology, predates its status as a UTC. The longstanding relation-ship also serves as a great recruitment funnel. Of the 1,200 engineers work-ing at the Indianapolis location, almost 700 are from Purdue. “They can hit the ground running,” Novick says of fellow Purdue graduates.

A current focus of UTC research at Purdue is the development of super-sonic business jets. Novick sum-marizes the objective this way: “At speeds greater than Mach 1, how can you eliminate the sonic boom over ground? If you can, this kind of air travel becomes viable.” To that end, engineers at Purdue are study-ing engine air inlets and how shock waves affect the turbo machinery. Novick predicts that within a decade this research will result in a new gen-eration of engine technology that will cut transoceanic flight time by about a third.

Novick looks ahead to the chal-lenges facing the aeronautics industry. Admittedly, the economic downturn hampers financing to customers in the market for multimillion-dollar jets. “If they can’t sell airplanes, I can’t sell engines,” he notes. But Novick also points to the burgeoning business of fuel-efficient engine design. “We are becoming more and more green,” he says, “and we have technology and proposals already in place to develop in the years to come.”

That’s just the kind of challenge Novick likes about his job as an aero-nautical engineer. “I’m thrilled about it. I’ve had great opportunity at work, having been involved in almost all aspects of the propulsion industry. The challenge of technological achieve-ment is the ability to work with a group of engineers who are dedicated to a common endpoint. Together, you tackle a problem,” he says. “And at the end of the day, you can say, ‘We got it.’” ■ G.V.

Allen S. Novick

AAE alum Chris Peters

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