Patent ID: 8015823

Claim:
An aircraft system comprising: a heat source comprising an aircraft engine component or an aircraft wing; and a passage adjacent said heat source for carrying a fluid having a cooling capacity to cool said heat source, said passage including a catalyst comprising a transition metal compound selected from a group consisting of carbides, nitrides, oxynitrides, oxycarbonitrides, oxycarbides, phosphides, and combinations thereof and said transition metal is selected from zirconium, hafnium, tantalum, niobium, molybdenum, tungsten, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, rhenium and combinations thereof that selectively endothermically reacts with said fluid to increase said cooling capacity, and wherein said catalyst includes a first section having a first transition metal for selectively endothermically cracking a constituent of the fluid to produce a product constituent and a second section having a second, different transition metal for selectively endothermically cracking said product constituent.