Junkyard wars...jets
 

I happen to catch Junkyard wars today on the dish. Their mission was to build jet powered carts! It was pretty cool! One team made a pulse jet for theirs and the other team made a jet engine using a turbo charger from a truck for theirs. Anyone happen to see this episode? I thought it was rather cool!
Myles

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

I've got it recorded on my TIVO. Someday, I'll figure out how to pull it off the tivo and put it online. That was awesome!!

In 10 hours they built two turbine powered carts from a junkyard. One was an actual turbine, and one was a buzz jet.

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

Something that was cool to watch was the startup of the pulse jet. I can just imagine how loud that thing must have been when it was running!
Myles

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

Ya, you could see the fear in the guys eyes every time that thing kicked off! It amazed me how simple they're designs were. Eddie Weeks should take note and show up at the next jet rally with one!!

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

Hey, I was the guy sitting in that pulsejet powered kart so I can tell you that *yes* it was loud :-)

We had a ball making that show and you should have seen the look on everyone's faces when we first fired that engine up on the safety day :-)

I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.

Or people can check out my website: http://aardvark.co.nz/pjet

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

Does anyone know when that episode will air again?
Chris Zonio

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

Simply Awesome!! I actually saw your website about a year ago and I remember thinking "what a crazy old man!!" I thought you were something between crazy and that guy on the Red Green Show (a canadian thrifty guy who's most famous quote is that "if the women don't find you handsome, at least they should find you handy") A very inventive persona.

After seeing the show and viewing your website again, all I can say is PURE GENIOUS!! I got a kick out of thinking wouldn't it be awesome to show up to one of the jet meets next year with a cart such as your designs. Glad to see you follow the forums. Thanks so much for sharing.

I know Wocketman was working on an RC pulsejet with someone else quite a while ago. There is mention of it somewhere in the jet forum. I saw another website where it's been done up to speeds of 300 MPH. I love it. For our small RC purposes, are there ready made products? Are they legal to fly at AMA fields? Would you build pulsejets for our purposes? If so, how much? I'm thinking you would need a powerplant capable of at least 8lbs of thrust, what are dimensions for something like that? Also, can it be made to run on liquid fuel? I thought the one you all ran was off of vaporized propane. Does the pulse jet draw the fuel or do you need a fuel pump? Or I guess you wouldn't need a pump if you're running on vapor?

Sean

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

Funny you should mention that -- we had a turbine fly-in here about a month ago and I rolled out the pulsejets and my jet-kart. Everyone was enthralled (and somewhat deafened) :-)

I gather that pulsejets are persona non grata for RC aircraft in most countries but since, if designed correctly, they can be throttled quite effectively and, in the case of valveless designs, are very reliable, I don't consider them to be any more dangerous than turbines. Certainly there's no risk of a turbine or compressor fragmenting and showering the area with schrapnel. Even the issue of opeating temperature can be addressed through proper shrouding -- which can also provide additional thrust and efficiency.

The good old Dynajet -- the engine most people associate with the term "pulsejet' has long since been superceded in terms of performance, reliabilty and flexibility.

RE: Junkyard wars...jets
 

We could fly them out here at Rabbit or El Mirage - no problem with noise at all.

Jackjet