ROCKLEDGE, FL – November 24, 2009 – Mainstream Engineering Corporation, a leading research and development company specializing in advanced thermal control and energy conversion, has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Navy to Develop a Thermal Management System for Tactical Airborne High Power Laser Applications.
Current aircraft thermal management systems are not capable of dissipating high-heat-flux thermal loads or transporting and rejecting overall thermal loads of those associated with tactical lasers. The proposed thermal management system must overcome the limitations of existing systems as well as meet the strict volume, mass and reliability requirements of aircraft operation. To meet these requirements, Mainstream will leverage its extensive experience in high-heat-flux technologies and advanced thermal management system development.
In the first phase of this effort, Mainstream will complete both an analytical evaluation of candidate high-heat-flux cooling technologies and system architectures for an airborne tactical fiber laser system as well as conduct an experimental evaluation of a sub-scale thermal management system. The experimental evaluation will demonstrate the ability of the high-heat-flux cooling configuration to acquire, transport and reject the thermal loads from various laser components. Following this effort, Mainstream will design the complete, full-scale laser thermal management system and demonstrate the system’s performance with the actual laser components.