Wave Pulse Jet Engine
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Wave Pulse Jet Engine
Interesting. Looks a bit Heath Robinson, but that’s not necessarily a factor in use. Not indication of cost vs a small turbine, or number of RC turbines. Mention of FADEC implies it’s not as simple as it looks.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/pu...future-weapons
Pulsejet Drone Flies, Could Have Big Impact On Cost Of Future Weapons
The pulsejet-powered Scitor-D reflects growing interest in low-cost, high-performance engines for decoys, one-way attack drones, and more.
A Baltimore-based startup has recently flown an experimental drone powered by a pulsejet engine, a type of powerplant that has few moving parts, in contrast to a conventional turbine, offering the promise of low-cost jet performance.
Previously, the company, Wave Engine Corp., received U.S. Air Force funding to develop a decoy powered by a pulsejet — a powerplant best known for its infamous use in World War II.
Meanwhile, the potential for the same propulsion technology to make it into other types of drones is something we have examined in the past and is becoming even more relevant given the increasing applications for expendable types…..
https://www.twz.com/news-features/pu...future-weapons
Pulsejet Drone Flies, Could Have Big Impact On Cost Of Future Weapons
The pulsejet-powered Scitor-D reflects growing interest in low-cost, high-performance engines for decoys, one-way attack drones, and more.
A Baltimore-based startup has recently flown an experimental drone powered by a pulsejet engine, a type of powerplant that has few moving parts, in contrast to a conventional turbine, offering the promise of low-cost jet performance.
Previously, the company, Wave Engine Corp., received U.S. Air Force funding to develop a decoy powered by a pulsejet — a powerplant best known for its infamous use in World War II.
Meanwhile, the potential for the same propulsion technology to make it into other types of drones is something we have examined in the past and is becoming even more relevant given the increasing applications for expendable types…..
The following 12 users liked this post by DaveReidUK:
Looks like something out of Scrapheap Challenge but so long as it works.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
I’ll note that both Ukraine and Russia are already using pulse jet drones…
https://www.dniprotoday.com/en/news/...lse-engine-521
https://www.dniprotoday.com/en/news/...lse-engine-521
If you want such an engine look up Robert Maddox; he has a youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@RobertMaddox and I think sells plans and components so you too can be hated by most of your neighbors for pursuing this hobby late into the night. And by neighbors, I mean anyone in a 2-5 mile radius. The bigger ones go to 900 pounds of thrust. He is hilarious.
Santa has a sleigh, right? And it flies, right? So, aviation content that even Norad says they track. Here's Maddox's pulse jet propelled sleigh flying.
Santa has a sleigh, right? And it flies, right? So, aviation content that even Norad says they track. Here's Maddox's pulse jet propelled sleigh flying.
The following 6 users liked this post by MechEngr:
The following users liked this post:
The following users liked this post:
The following users liked this post:
An Ex plumber in the UK has been playing with these for a long time, amongst other stuff. He has turned his experimental and wacky stuff into a source of income by YouTube. See
for how simple it is to make a "no moving parts" engine. He made a larger one, which he fixed to his truck, loud enough to be heard across the English channel (22 miles!) and went to the south coast to Fart at the French. If a turbo charger from a vehicle is added the efficiency can be increased but so is the cost. Enjoy.
Rans6...........................
Rans6...........................
I remember an episode of Scrapheap Challenge where the idea was to build a rail sled powered by a pulse engine. It was scary the speeds produced at the run off. It also appeared to be quite noisy when running.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,625
Received 296 Likes
on
164 Posts
I love Robert Maddox, he is an absolutely delightful nutter!
Last time I saw (and definitely heard !) one of these, it was at an R/C model fly-in the 60s, at Burtonwood, IIRC. A Dutch team flew a delta wing version, very well, very fast and, just to repeat, very noisily !
The following users liked this post:
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,966
Received 2,863 Likes
on
1,228 Posts
An Ex plumber in the UK has been playing with these for a long time, amongst other stuff. He has turned his experimental and wacky stuff into a source of income by YouTube. See ColinFurze - mad inventor for how simple it is to make a "no moving parts" engine. He made a larger one, which he fixed to his truck, loud enough to be heard across the English channel (22 miles!) and went to the south coast to Fart at the French. If a turbo charger from a vehicle is added the efficiency can be increased but so is the cost. Enjoy.
Rans6...........................
Rans6...........................
Err from my Aircraft Engine training in the RAF and yes I did Pulse Jets on the course, gawd knows why, ( mind you we did all the piston engine stuff as well, sleeve valves, radials, rotary's, the lot), you need shutters at the front that move, when the fuel lights the shutters close, then when it goes out and the pressure drops they open allowing air in. Hence the pulses...so it actually has moving parts, otherwise it would be a ramjet.
I believe these are the ones where the inlet & outlet face the same way.
From Wikipedia.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,966
Received 2,863 Likes
on
1,228 Posts
Gotcha, we studied the one out of ermm.. V1, such was the RAF training mid 70's
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
It would seem t9 be a Lockwood-Hiller variant, a5 least they reference it in one of their own patents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valveless_pulsejet
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3462955A/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3462955A/en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valveless_pulsejet
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3462955A/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3462955A/en
Mention of FADEC implies it’s not as simple as it looks.
Biggest drawback to a pulsejet (aside from the noise) is they are not very fuel efficient - probably not a big concern for an expendable drone.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Biggest drawback to a pulsejet (aside from the noise) is they are not very fuel efficient
…“The company has also demonstrated its pulsejets using various different fuels: gasoline/petrol (87 Octane), kerosene-based fuel (Jet-A/JP-8), and sustainable ethanol-based biofuel (E85).
In terms of fuel efficiency, the company has demonstrated thrust-specific fuel consumption (TSFC) levels under 2.0 pounds/pounds-force per hour, which it says rivals the efficiency of more complex and expensive turbine-based engines.
Wave Engine combines its pulsejets with Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC), in which a computer controls engine performance, and this may well be key to achieving the stated levels of efficiency, as well as optimizing performance more generally.”……