It seems rare when a university builds a facility within its budget, easily pays back its loans, and begins to make a profit in a short period of time.Ohio State’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, Applied Mechanics and Aviation has recently accomplished this feat with its gas turbine research laboratory at Don Scott Field. OSU is the only university in Ohio to have such an extensive facility.The new laboratory, which has been operating for one year, does advanced research on gas turbines, which are used to generate power in things such as aircraft engines, tanks, helicopters, boats and stationary power plants. They are also one of the most critical items involved in airplane design.”Until recently, the gas turbine industry provided the second largest positive contribution toward the balance of international trade for the United States,” said Rez Abhari, associate director of the new lab.Initially the department had planned to build such a laboratory from the ground up. But circumstances made it possible to purchase existing gas turbine related facilities and bring them to OSU.In August 1994, Gerald Gregorek, chairman of the department, said he was told that Michael Dunn, then director of gas turbine work at CALSPAN laboratory in Buffalo, was interested in approaching research from a university environment.”I worked with Dunn in the ’60s and knew he was a top-notch researcher,” said Gregorek. “I knew that if we wanted him, we had to act quickly.”The department quickly formed the Gas Turbine Research Initiative to determine how much it would cost to build a research lab. At that time, no other university in Ohio had a strong turbine research facility.The group concluded that it would take at least $2 million and two years to build such a lab and acquire the necessary equipment.Dunn came to OSU in the winter of 1995 as director of the new lab, joining Abhari, who had come to OSU from CALSPAN a few months earlier. In 1996, they were followed by three CALSPAN engineers, who approached OSU separately and were hired to work in the new lab.With a $750,000 loan from the Ohio Department of Development, the department began constructing the building which would house the lab.Gregorek said that he then heard that CALSPAN had decided to sell its gas turbine related facilities. Borrowing another $1.15 million OSU immediately purchased the company’s turbine test facilities. The department now had its gas turbine research laboratory that cost less than the $2 million estimate.The department has seven years to pay back the loans, but Gregorek said this will not be a problem. He says that with the amount of contracts they have on the agenda now, they will be able to pay the loans back in five years.One of the main features of the lab is the shock tube. According to Abhari, the tunnel housing the tube is 150 feet long and the tube is 18.5 inches in diameter, making it one of the largest in the world.