Altair, Auburn University Team Up on Rocket Engine Project

Altair is working with Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering on a $1.25 million AFWERX Phase II STTR contract. The two organizations will develop analytical models for cyclonic flows, construct computational models, and study the stability of different vortex engines to address the challenges facing public and private sector aerospace organizations.

Within the contract, Altair is assuming the previous role of Research in Flight, which was founded in 2013 and won a series of development contracts and grants over a 10-year span. Altair acquired Research in Flight in April 2024 and its technology is now known as Altair FlightStream, part of the Altair HyperWorks platform.

“This opportunity continues Altair's legacy of innovation in the aerospace industry and demonstrates the power of our technology as we work closely with a prestigious institution such as Auburn University,” says Pietro Cervellera, senior vice president of aerospace and defense, Altair. “FlightStream empowers users in unique ways, bridging the gap between high-fidelity CFD simulations and engineering demands to set industry standards for efficiency, accuracy, and speed.”

Within the project, the Auburn University team—led by Dr. Joe Majdalani, the university's Hugh and Loeda Francis Chair of Excellence in the department of aerospace engineering—will use FlightStream to identify optimal conditions within vortex engines. FlightStream will help the team predict cyclonic flow performance and acoustic signature characteristics at a fraction of the time compared to previous methods. These models will enable users to predict the stability performance of thrust engines earlier in the design cycle over a range of operating conditions.

“This contract allows us to develop next-generation solutions for vortex engines and collaborate with Altair, whose decades of experience and technology now includes the tool from Research in Flight,” Majdalani says. “Previously, each test seeking to study vortex engine capabilities and stability limitations took about two weeks. With FlightStream, these same predictions take just a few minutes.”

The contract is awarded by AFWERX. AFWERX is the innovation arm of the U.S. Department of the Air Force (DAF) that harnesses American ingenuity from small businesses and startups to address pressing challenges of the DAF. Since 2019, AFWERX has executed over 6,200 new contracts worth more than $4.7 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability.

To learn more about FlightStream, visit https://altair.com/altair-flightstream. To learn more about AFRL and AFWERX, visit https://afresearchlab.com/ and https://afwerx.com/.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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