JASC News

On May 1, 2004, JASC delivered their Active Combustion Control Valve to General Electric Aircraft Engines. This system will be integrated into GEAE’s fuel system for use with an experimental lean-burn liquid fuel turbine engine in an effort to control and suppress combustion instabilities that may exist in the engine’s combustor.

Active Combustion Control Valve

Amplifier/Drivers for ACCV

At the heart of the system are three of JASC’s patented High-Speed Servo Valves (HSSV’s), which have demonstrated response within 5 dB to 550 Hz and within 10 dB to 600 Hz using liquid fuel in laboratory testing at JASC.

GEAE plans to evaluate the system on their test rig throughout the month of May 2004.

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A 14-year old Tempe aerospace company has found a lucrative niche for itself making high-tech controls for engine fuel systems.

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Jansen’s Aircraft Systems Controls (JASC) proudly participated in a major milestone for the aerospace community as the Hyper-X Research Vehicle (X-43A) streaked out over the Pacific Ocean at a record-breaking speed of Mach 7 (over 4700 mph). NASA Dryden Flight Research Center reported that on the afternoon of March 27th, 2004, after getting a ride from a B-52 to 40,000 ft and then a Pegasus booster rocket to Mach 7 at 95,000 ft, the Hyper-X engine fired and history was made.

NASA Hyper-X Research Vehicle (X-43A)

It is the first time that an airframe-integrated scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine was demonstrated in free flight. In addition, preliminary data suggest that a net positive thrust was achieved. This accomplishment is truly a milestone for the aeronautics community – and the world.

JASC designed and developed the electromechanically-actuated, electronically-controlled ignitor and fuel control valves for the scramjet engine. After the vehicle was jettisoned from the booster and achieved stable flight at Mach 7, the vehicle’s engine cowl door opened, allowing air into the engine. The JASC silane ignitor valve was then actuated, followed by the JASC hydrogen fuel valve to sustain and regulate combustion in a process analogous to lighting and keeping a match lit in a hurricane!
Larry Huebner, the NASA Langley Research Center Hyper-X propulsion lead stated, “We achieved positive acceleration of the vehicle while we were climbing, and maintained outstanding vehicle control. This was a world-record speed for air-breathing flight.”

The flight was the culmination of over 40 years of effort to demonstrate successful positive thrust hypersonic flight, proclaimed to be “the Holy Grail of Flight” by veterans in the aerospace engine community.

The record-breaking X-43A flight supersedes the previous record-holding air-breathing engine flight of Mach 3+ by the SR-71 Blackbird and eclipses the X-15 record of Mach 6.7 which used a rocket-powered engine.

In addition to the X-43A fuel control effort, JASC is pioneering the development of high temperature, fuel-draulically actuated control valves that will allow hydrocarbon fuels to be used in scramjet combustors. The ultimate benefit lies in allowing for low cost, repetitive, high-speed flights for both military and commercial purposes.

Need for Speed / Speed for Freedom: Airbreathing hypersonic engines will someday allow for reusable vehicles for access to space; rapid global flight for commerce; and high-speed deployment of munitions to defend our country.

JASC is committed to assisting our Customers in making affordable hypersonic flight a reality.

JASC founder and president, Harv Jansen, is a true aerospace industry pioneer. He was involved as an engineer on the development of the SR-71’s J-58 engine and the world’s first liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine designated the RL-10. The J-58 engine was as innovative as the SR-71 airframe. To this day, the J-58 remains a state of the art engine in aircraft propulsion. It was the first and only dual-cycle aircraft engine, transitioning from a conventional turbine engine to a ramjet engine at ~Mach 2. It was the first engine to use fueldraulic controls, and the first to use metal seals on tubing joints. Many materials and fluid advancements in use today were spawned from the J-58 engine development program.
Observing the first true hypersonic flight by the X-43A was especially gratifying for the JASC Team. We truly hope that there are many more to come.

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JASC is pleased to announce a shipping milestone for industrial power generation products! Over the past five (5) years, JASC has manufactured and shipped liquid fuel check valves, purge air check valves and three-way purge valves for use on heavy-duty gas turbine engines used in power generation.

Breakdown of these industrial products:
Liquid Fuel Check Valves = 25,000
Purge Air Check Valves = 12,000
Three-Way Purge Valves = 3,000
40,000 units

JASC’s High-Flow, Zero-Leak Liquid Fuel Check Valves are designed to operate with fluids including Stoddard solvent, jet fuels, hydraulic oil, and synthetic oil. Fluid damping is used to provide stable operation from crack to full flow operation.

JASC’s Purge Air Check Valve units are designed to operate continuously on a gas turbine engine with air temperature in excess of 400° F in the free flow direction and with liquid fuel, up to 1200 PSID and 250° F in the checked direction. These units will also operate on water, Stoddard solvent, jet fuel, diesel fuel, hydraulic oil, and synthetic oil.

JASC’s Three-Way Purge Valve offers a means to deliver fuel or purge air to the combustion chamber atomizers of a gas turbine engine. The valve operates at high pressure and temperature while maintaining zero leakage between individual air and fuel sources.

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In January 2004, JASC was awarded an order to supply General Electric Aircraft Engines with a version of their high-speed servo valve (HSSV). This valve is an application used to control combustion instability in one of GEAE’s experimental lean-burn gas combustors. Several of these HSSV’s will be used to comprise the JASC Active Combustion Control Valve (ACCV) that will ultimately be integrated into the GEAE test engine’s fuel control system. Testing of the ACCV system is scheduled to begin 1Q04.

JASC HSSV for the Active Combustion Control Valve

A similar Active Combustion Control Valve has been developed by JASC to attenuate undesirable pressure pulses within the combustion chamber of a turbine engine. This unit has successfully operated at 400 HZ in a gas turbine combustion chamber test rig.

For more information on the state-of-the-art technology that JASC produces, please contact us by phone at 602.438.4400, e-mail at engineering@jasc-controls.com.

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