Fairchild Controls Corporation, an EADS North America company, has signed a teaming agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to evaluate innovative cooling system technologies for avionics and mission systems aboard military aircraft. The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) will result in the joint development and operation of a multiple-evaporator vapor cycle system prototype at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
The next-generation cooling system will use multiple independent evaporators to provide variable cooling to electronic equipment, eliminating the need for an auxiliary liquid cooling loop. This concept, developed by Fairchild Controls for the Air Force, has the potential to reduce power consumption, minimize weight, and improve overall reliability for military aircraft. Additionally, the advanced vapor cycle system design is expected to significantly improve mission performance by enabling the avionics to operate under precisely controlled isothermal conditions.
