Any other small turbine builers still active?

What is the smallest pulse jet you have built?

Hey Al, just build some bigger turbines and pulsejets -- that'll be challenge enough.

If you haven't seen it already, check out what we did on Scrapheap Challenge -- check out the videos I've linked to on my eBay auction:

Now *that* was challenging *and* fun :-)

-- you can contact me via

I guess its similar in other countries, but here in Britain there is quite a following for building your own gas turbines. Theres a group devoted to them, and they display their efforts at most of the big model engineering exhibitions. At our Bristol exhibition this year, they had a static demonstration stand, on which they ran a turbine up to about

1/4 speed, with full instrumentation - fuel rates, revs, thrust, various temperatures etc. It was really impressive. There exhibited quite large model planes and cars that use these engines. I gather the fuel consumption tended to limit the planes endurance - talk about gas-guzzlers! Some amazing pieces of model engineering. Dave. UK.

Yeah, there's two "camps" of turbine builders:

1. Those who build engines based around unmodified turbochargers

1. Those who build lightweight engines specifically for powering models

The former type are much easier and usually just involve rigging up an oil pump and building a combustor. However, some of these turbo-jets produce amazing power levels -- in excess of 100lbs of thrust with afterburner.

I've got several hundred megabytes of video here showing various turbo-turbines propelling gokarts and spitting huge shafts of flame from their afterburners. It's great fun and, providing you can get a turbo at the right price, incredibly cheap. If you keep an eye out on eBay for a suitable *big* turbo (Cummins, Holset or whatever) you can build a 100lbs+ thrust engine for just a few hundred dollars. Not bad when you consider that even the cheapest of the model gas-turbines (only about 12-15lbs thrust cost several *thousand* dollars.

Of course if you want *really* cheap, just build a great big pulsejet :-)

-- you can contact me via

Many of us would like to be involved but just haven't quite gotten started yet.

:)

D

Well don't miss Junkyard Wars on TLC this week. The Jet Racers episode screens at 9pm PT/midnight ET and then again at 3pm on Sunday Nov 30.

You'll get to see a *big* pulsejet and a *big* turbo-gas-turbine built before your very eyes by a group of Royal Navy engineers and a bunch of Boy Scouts.

You'll also catch a glimpse of yours-truly as expert on the pulsejet side :-)

-- you can contact me via