Raymond Beach has over thirty-five years work experience at NASA in power systems, beginning with power component and system development work done in support of the ERDA and DOE energy programs at the Lewis Research Center in the late 1970s. This work included the development of motor drives for electric and hybrid electric vehicles and flywheel energy storage for vehicle power peaking and brake energy recovery. During the space station program he was the lead testbed engineer for the advanced development program and was responsible for the development, integration, and test of AC and DC components used in power test beds to verify system operation and performance. Subsequent work involved the research and development of high speed flywheels, to be used on low earth orbit spacecraft to provide energy storage and attitude control. The flywheel work led to the successful demonstration of a 60,000 rpm composite flywheel system suspended on low loss magnetic bearings for a flight demonstration project. Recent work, performed as a program manager at DARPA, involved the conceptual development and analysis of power beaming used to provide energy for space propulsion systems. Current work activities involve the development of advanced power components and systems for aircraft hybrid electric propulsion.
