October 25, 2021

John Pula

Mr. Pula is USNC’s Hardware System Functional Manager, where he is responsible for establishing the tools, processes, and culture of mechanical engineering. His team designs, analyzes, manufactures, and tests the hardware that support and utilize the company’s innovative nuclear fuel and reactors. A veteran of the gas turbine industry, Mr. Pula  developed novel technologies for the cooling of turbine components, the control and delivery of secondary air, and the testing of experimental fans, compressors, and combustors for customers like Siemens, Rolls Royce, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Later, while working at Blue Origin, he helped define the architecture of the BE-7 Lunar Lander Engine, including its novel dual-closed-expander cycle, which would be the first of its kind. Key to this technology are novel combustion chamber cooling schemes which he developed while designing a test article that completed all of its test objectives while being hot-fired at  Marshall Space Flight Center.