Make A Real RC Jet Engine At Home
This is a undertaking I have had an interest in for a while, as commercially available RC Jet Engines are rather expensive. Certainly in the thousands rather than hundreds of dollar range, one major producer is Jetcat USA, who certainly has a fantastic product range, but they do come with a sizeable price tag, unfortunately pricing many budding jet modelers out of the niche. Please use the link for lots more information about RC Jet engines.
The main problem has always been with the turbine and the substance it needs to be made of to work efficiently, and also absorb the heat involved. Indeed this was precisely the same problem faced by the early engineers in Germany at the later part of World War 2, they just could not be supplied with the alloys that they needed to ensure the dependability of the early jumo series jet engines.
I shortly found out that you can buy Turbine wheels commercially that will allow you to construct your own running RC Jet Engine. You will need a degree of mechanical understanding to use this turbine wheel and create a running jet engine. One company, March Labs can provide CNC ready plans so that you can go to your local engineering firm and they can make all or some of the parts for you, thus allowing you to carry out final assembly of the components. Finally Jet power may affordable! See videos of RC Jets here
This Jet Engine will be of the centrifugal type. This is exactly the same format favoured by the majority of commercial RC Jet engine manufacturers. It is the indentical type of engine first designed and developed by Sir Frank Whittle of Powerjets Ltd, and used in many early designs of post war aircraft such as the Gloster Meteor, the UK’s 1st operational Jet Fighter. Sir Frank Whittle was one of the first pioneers of modern jet aviation. The UK’s First supersonic jet fighter used a pair of axial flow design engines to power the BAC Lighting, this aircraft used an distinctive, one above the other engine configuation.
I’m sure there are some very clever modelers out there will be able to take the off the shelf turbine wheel and go and produce a working RC Jet Engine. Or you can buy a kit of parts from Wren Turbines or March Labs.
This project will not be easy for most of us, however the joy of starting your first RC Jet Engine will definitely make the effort and cost worthwhile.
Click the link to Learn more about RC flying and RC Jet Engines
