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This paper summarizes progress for the “Integrated Power Unit - Advanced Development” program under contract with the U.S. Air Force at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. This is a 58 month program beginning in February 1996, and ending in December 2000. Figure 1 is a program schedule that identifies major tasks and timing of the phases. The scope of this effort is to design, build, and ground test a highly integrated, air-breathing, electrical power unit which demonstrates the critical design and integration features required for a simple, durable, and reliable Integrated Power Unit (IPU). The IPU must be electrically linked for self starting, main engine electrical starting and as a major source of redundant electric power for the aircraft's main electric power system. Figure 2 shows a mockup of a prototypic IPU design.

A Thermodynamic Vent System (TVS) to vent a liquid hydrogen tank in low gravity was designed and built by Sundstrand. The TVS was designed and built to a General Dynamic Space Systems Division (GDSSD) specification and was based on earlier laboratory work and design studies done by GDSSD for NASA. The TVS assures that superheated vapor is vented from the tank to control tank pressure with minimum loss of fuel. Major components of the TVS are a swirl flow heat exchanger, an electric motor-driven mixer pump, a fully redundant electronic inverter, and a redundant combined regulator and shutoff valve. The TVS has been extensively tested; the test results compare well with analytical predictions. This paper will describe the system and discuss the test results.