Some of the older guys in RC might remember this little jet engine. I just picked one up at my local hobby store's "Grab Box" for $10. Mine is the one called "The Scorpion" lol. It's a really cool piece of history!

http://www.ebay.com/gds/About-JETEX-...2108639/g.html

I remember them well. I must have had a dozen of them when I was a lad.

Never got mine to burn worth a flip though.[&:]

Yep, I remember them.
I had a couple of jet-X 50's that I would put under the nose of my ten cent gliders.
The Scorpion was the bigger one of the bunch.

Actually, the Jetex series are actually sold fuel <u>rocket</u> motors as they do not "inhale" any air. Several sizes were made from the mini Jetex 35, the most popular Jetex 50, a Jetex 150-legal for AMARocketry and Payload competition, and the mighty Jetex 600 or Scorpion. The original fuel, in solid pellet form, was derived from bat guano and later removed from the market as the military used it in their missiles, such as the Sidewinder. I don't have any proof of this but that was the rumor of the day. Jetex then offered a different fuel composition which burned much hotter and melted the gasket seals between the motor case and nozzle. It was also difficult to get this replacement fuel to burn reliably as you had to scatch or score the surface and use a coil of fuse to get alightoff.Several kits wereavailable for Jetex motors franging from simple balsa gliders tobuilt-up stick and tissue scale models-some were imports from the UK. Jetex motors have long been discontinued but replaced by a Rapier series availablefromthe Czech Republic. These are flown in AMAfreeflight rocketry competition. I cut my eye teeth on these very early "jet" motors.

Art ARRO

I had a couple of these. I blew one apart with my home made rocket fuel

I must have had at least 10 of the "50"-type. When they fuel was getting harder to find, we bought the kind of firework sticks
that you step on and they sizzle and crack. Crushed it carefully and filled the motor with it, it worked very well until I ran out
of fuse and tried to start it by holding a lighter under the nozzle. The whole thing overheated and exploded, luckily missing my
head, eyes etc!!!

Happy memories of club nights in Dunfirmline and Round The Pole flying with tiny Jetex powered deltas.

I had two or three of the ribbed 50s before getting a French copy which was thought superior.

I had a Jetex 50 ages ago & mostly had it on balsa gliders until I learnt its quirks before moving on to
more advanced Jetex powered models. I never got it to work reliably so that was a dead end.

Occasionally one of the local free flight guys will bring one out for a fly, no idea where they get the
fuel pellets, I suspect they are just 40 year old originals.

Like most small models electric flight technology has made tiny jets possible, guys at my club fly
tiny RC jets that cost pennies with amazing performance. - John.

The fuel pellets can be found on fleabay and it is amazing what people will pay for them!
With micro ducted fans coming along, the technology is pretty well obsolete.

Here is a picture of the one I found. It looks like the one they call a Scorpion. How much thrust did these things put out? oz?

Well, I did. And I had the BURNT fingers to PROVE it! [:@]

I had one for my Graupner Fouga glider. It ended up on a chuckie. I remember a booklet describing the "augmenter tube" that could give 20% more thrust. Much like our tailpipes of today.
It basically formed an air pumping venturi to increase thrust. Never tried it though.
Andre