Frontline

US-based Frontline Aerospace has raised $2m for developing its new gas turbine technologies.

With the help of this initial funding, Frontline will move on to production and commercial sales.

The company has not disclosed the names of its investors.

It has designed, patented and prototyped two retrofit products, MicroFire recuperator, and IsoCool compressor technology.

The combined technologies can increase engine power and reduce fuel consumption by 10% to 40%.

According to Frontline, they can also increase the payload and range of in-service helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, as well as enhance performance of ground-based military, industrial and commercial applications such as manufacturing, pipeline pumping and power generation.

The company’s technology has been designed for gas turbine engines, including Rolls-Royce model 250 family and widely deployed in helicopters and drones.

"Our interests are aligned with $2m in operating capital, with the opportunity to disrupt the entire gas-turbine market."

Frontline Aerospace founder and CEO Ryan S Wood said: "The time is right to go-to-market with the performance products we’ve been developing since 2008.

"We’re pleased to announce that our interests are aligned with $2m in operating capital, with the opportunity to disrupt the entire gas-turbine market for aviation, power generation and hundreds of industrial and commercial applications."

Frontline Aerospace advisor and former Lockheed vice-president Timothy A Kinnan said: "Using advanced manufacturing and materials to increase the efficiencies of heat transfer and combustion processes, Frontline is bringing fuel efficiency benefits to market that, if the proof-of-concept results are even half right, will be truly disruptive to a multi-billion-dollar industry.

"With the thermodynamic performance numbers we’re seeing with our products, turbine engines may approach the efficiency levels we see in diesel engines, which is mind boggling.

"It’s just a matter of fabricating at this point, and these products will sell themselves."


Image: Frontline Aerospace IsoCool Press. Photo: courtsey of Frontline Aerospace.