General Applied Science Laboratory (GASL) is an American aerospace company, known as a pioneer of hypersonic propulsion.
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Description
General Applied Science Laboratory was founded in 1956 by Antonio Ferri and became a developer and testing house for advanced propulsion systems. Another early researcher was Theodore von Kármán. Its expertise in hypersonic harsh environments has allowed it to research and test materials and methods for extreme high temperatures as well as combustion systems relevant to current power generation and clean energy. The company is based in Ronkonkoma, New York.
The company participated in the National Aero-Space Plane (X-30) and NASA X-43 programs in the 1990s. GASL has a propulsion and combustion test complex with seven high pressure, high temperature test cells, and NASA's Hypersonic Pulse Facility (HYPULSE).
GASL, Inc. was founded in 1956 as Gruen Applied Science Laboratories, Inc. Later in 1958 it changed its name to General Applied Science Laboratories, Inc. and subsequently changed its name to GASL, Inc. in 1995. On November 20, 2003, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) acquired GASL from Allied Aerospace.
GASL developed Scramjet technology for propulsion such as the GASL Projectile fired in 2001.
GASL upgraded the NASA-HYPULSE test facility to simulate Mach 7 and Mach 10 flight speeds.
In January 2010, ATK's Center for Energy and Aerospace Innovation (CEAI) was dedicated at GASL to develop clean energy technologies. One project, funded by the US Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) uses experience from hypersonic wind tunnel tests to improve CO2 capture from power plants. Another 2010 project uses GASL expertise in managing hydrogen to develop storage systems for hydrogen vehicles.
In May 2012, The Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE), Flight 2 Payload System, designed and built by the GASL team at ATK (NYSE: ATK), executed a successful test flight achieving Mach 8.5 and acquiring the first-ever data on dual-mode-to-scramjet propulsion transition.
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GASL provides research, engineering and testing to government and businesses in 12 primary areas: