USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

John E Bush

Ronald E Smith

David B Fenneman

A method and apparatus for providing a self-compressing supersonic flow is provided by use of a contoured supersonic nozzle design. The shape of the supersonic nozzle array can be composed of curved blades which provide a focusing effect for a supersonic flow which will provide a gradient change in mach number along the supersonic flow path and efficient pressure recovery. Ideal design permits the self-compressing flow to have a secondary throat with down stream mach number of approximately one. As a result, a gas dynamic laser will have a well defined lasing region shortly after the increase in velocity of the working fluid to supersonic speeds. Controlled shaping of the supersonic flow is provided by means which will either use high speed jets or the Coanda effect. Further refining of the shape of the flow can permit the lasing region to take on the shape of a torus. This principle can be applied to devices other than gas lasers which require internal supersonic flow, such as wind tunnels, MHD machines, or certain propulsion devices.

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Ridgecrest, CA, United States of America

John E Bush