Last Updated: 27 October 2003
Added 2 new gas-turbine links
Note: as of February 15, 2001 clicking on any of the 3rd-party links in the list
below will start a new instance of your browser. This is done so that you
can return to this page simply by closing that window instead of having to
repeatedly pound the "Back" button.
In order to try and make this site as useful as possible to others who
might want to build jet engine of some description, or are just interested in the
topic, I've included the following links.
Pulse Jet Sites
- Valveless Pulsejet
Andreas has built a Lockwood valveless pulsejet working from
the patent documents and it seems to work
very well. Nice webpage, good pictures and even some video as well.
- Argus Valvehead Castings
David Brill says he is about to make a short run of castings for those wanting to make
a 2/3-sized replica of the Argus V1 pulsejet engine.
- Pablo's Valveless Pulsejet
This Spanish language site documents the construction and operation of a valvless
engine known as The Chinese Valveless". You can translate the pages to English using
the Google Translation
service.
- Michael's Pulsejet
A site in French that contains pictures and video of Michael's pulsejet engine
and an F16 model airplane.
- Another Pulsejet Project
This is a weblog of what happens when 2 people decide to burn their fingers
on what is said to be the most simple jet engine concept ever invented
- Eric's Pulsejet Site
Eric Beck's pulsejet page with rendered images and pictures of his work
to date.
- Pulsejet Powered Penny Farthing
Yes, believe it or not, this Joff is planning to mount a Lockwood-style pulsejet
on his Penny Farthing bicycle! (and you thought I was crazy!)
- Ground Zero
Dewey King has been building quite a few different pulsejet engines and documents
them on his website. His use of one to provide power for an RC glider is
rather novel.
- Pulse Jet Project
This guy's building a 6-foot long pulsejet to throw on a car. Looks like a nice
job -- but he's going to be disappointed with the meagre 30lbs of thrust he'll
get from an engine with a 3 inch tailpipe.
- Sherman's Pulse Reactor
A home-made valveless pulse jet modeled on the Hiller/Lockwood pulse reactor
design.
- Pulsorreactores.com
A Spanish site (use
this link for an automatic
translation to English) which has a useful list of pulsejet manufacturers
and some other information.
- The Hiller-Lockwood Pulse Reactor
This engine is really a valveless pulse-jet that
was investigated as a propulsion source by the US military shortly after
WW2. This site has some very interesting diagrams and a picture of one
prototype unit glowing madly. Another picture can be found
here.
- A Jet-powered Gokart
There's little more than a picture on this page but it shows a gokart powered by
a valveless pulse-jet engine which looks like a variation of the Hiller-Lockwood
pulse reactor design (above).
- Pulse Jet Engines
Richard Caine has an excellent page with plenty of pictures and some explanations
of how pulsejets work.
- The "Vergeltungs Waffen" (Retaliation Weapons) data base
Some original documents with pictures and plans for the V1 pulse-jet powered
missile of WW2.
- Toine Martens RC model Airplanes from Amsterdam
Lots of model airplane material with plenty of pulse-jet and small gas-turbine stuff
as well. Certainly worth a look.
- Home made jet & pulse jet engine Highly Recommended
Kenneth's site is one of the best on the Web if you're interested in pulsejet
engines. He also has stuff on turbo-jets, pressure-jets and other engine types,
as well as a really good range of pulsejet plans you can download for free.
Also check out his discussion forum which is usually pretty active.
- Peter's Hobby Page
Peter is building a PV8 pulsejet.
- Pulsejet/Ramjet project
This guy has some interesting ideas on the construction of a combined pulse/ram jet engine.
- The Gluhareff Pressure Jet Engine
A commercial site that will sell you plans for a unique "pressure jet" engine
that can be built in several sizes.
- Homebult Jet Engines
Windspire is another site offering to sell plans for a range of jet engines
you can build yourself.
- Pulse Combustion
Some interesting background on the theory of pulse-combustion.
- Palmer High's Pulse Jet engine
An interesting high-school pulse jet engine project.
- Plans For A Pulse Jet Engine
Construction blueprints for a pulse-jet engine.
- DynaFog
DynaFog are the original manufacturers of the world-famous DynaJet pulsejet
engine which enjoyed popularity amongst model airplane enthusiasts in the
1960s.
- A pre-formed Google search
Searches Google for the term "pulsejet engine"
- A pre-formed Google Usenet search
Searches AltaVista for the term "pulsejet" within the usenet newsgroups. Results
are ordered by date -- most recent first.
- Pulsejets on eBay
Searches for the term "pulsejet" on eBay.
- Inside the pulsejet engine
An interesting document written by Fredrick Westberg and presented here as
a download (900Kbytes) in Adobe PDF format.
- The Pulsejets Yahoo Group
An online community for the discussion of pulsejet engines using the
Yahoo Groups service (formerly eGroups).
Home-made Gas Turbine Sites
- Nick's Jet Kart
This is Nick Haddock's very impressive turbocharger-turbine powered gokart. Nick was an expert
on the same episode of Scrapheap Challenge as me and
we had a ball!.
Added 27 October, 2003
- Jetped-Boarders
This is the site for jet-powered GoPeds. You knew someone had to do it right?
Added 27 October, 2003
- Bret Kahler's Turbo Turbine
Bret is just another crazy guy building a jet engine from a turbocharger on
a very limited budget and he's documenting the process on his website.
- A DIY Gas-turbine-powered motorcycle
This guy from Australia has stuck a *big* turbocharger-based gas turbine engine in a
motorcycle frame. Now that's cool!
- Clint Davis's Turbo Turbine
Clint is studying aerospace maintenance which is probably a good thing for
someone who builds their own turbocharger-based gas turbine engines.
- TurboKart
Here's a slick turbine-powered gokart project. Check out the video on the
videos page
- First Experiments with a Turbocharger
This guy has documented his initial experiences with his turbocharger-based
gas turbine engine.
- Chris Haley's Homebuilt Turbine
Chris is working on turbo-turbines and pulsejets which he's documenting
on this website.
- Jetman's Aviation Page
Michael has scratch-built several gas-turbine engines, along with a rocket-motor
and a reaction-powered helicopter. Certainly worth a look.
- Turbojet Technologies
These guys are offering plans from which you can build your own turbo-based
gas-turbine engine. The site is currently "under development" and the AVIs
won't work unless you've got an ATI video card but its worth a visit.
- Mitch's Jet Engine
Mitch is building a turbo-turbine from a 1985 Nissan 300Z turbo in shop class
at school.
- Dan's Jet Turbine Engine
Built in three weeks from a Cummins turbocharger, Dan's engine puts out about
50lbs of thrust at full throttle.
- Simon Jansen's Turbocharger Gas Turbine project
Simon has recently joined the ranks of those crazy enough to build a turbocharger-based
gas turbine engine. This site has some excellent explanations of how these
things work.
- John Williamson's Page
John has some great engine pictures on this page including a Shreckling home-built
turbine, a Plessey Dynamics Solent APU, and some pulse-jet stuff. John had a
motor-bike accident is now thinking of hooking the Solent up to his wheelchair!
- Paul's KJ66 Page
Paul's pages have some good background and lots of pictures of his home-built
KJ66 gas turbine engine
- The Berndt Turbine Project
This is an excellent site detailing Robert Berndt's rather impressive and "big"
turbo-based engine.
- Mark Nye's Engines Highly Recommended
Some of the biggest and best turbo-based engines on the Web along with masses
of really useful and inspiring material including excellent pictures. This
guy is a turbine-fanatic -- check out the "real" jet-boats!
- Home-built Turbine By Chris
Another nicely engineered turbo-based engine -- but there are some big images
on this site so be prepared to wait for it to load.
- Kevin's Home-made Turbine
Kevin admits his turbocharger unit is tired but it still works.
- Mike's Home-made Turbine
Mike says "Yes, you too can build your own turbojet engine! I did it, and if
I can almost anyone can."
- Small Gas Turbine Homepage
This Web-Site is here to allow people who build and operate small jet engines of all types to
communicate and help each other. And to find plans, help or other interesting links. A great
resource!
- Hobby Gas Turbines
Ian Bennett's Gas Turbine Collecting and Operating Home Page
- Turbocharger Turbine Page
A range of gas turbine resources
- Gas Turbine And Live Steam Page
Looking for a turbine-powered ride-on mower? You'll find it, and more, right here!
- Yet Another DIY Turbo Charger Turbine Page
Patrick says "Twenty years after realizing a gas turbine could be built from a turbo charger,
I finally built one."
- Project TJ-1
A home-made gas turbine engine built from a car turbo. Not updated since 1997
but interesting none the less.
- A Turbine powered bicycle?
Yes, these folks added a home-built gas-turbine engine (complete with
afterburner) to their bicycle.
- Yet another homebuilt gas turbine
Some great detail pictures of a homebuilt gas-turbine and a pulse-jet but the
text is not in English so it's a bit hard (for me) to figure out what story
lies behind the images.
- David Barr's Turbo-turbine
David is a Nuclear Engineer who works for the Royal Mail in Britain (go figure!).
He has built a gas-turbine engine from a Garret turbo out of a Ford Escort.
- YahooGroups Highly Recommended
Join the excellent turbine-builders online community at the YahooGroups (formerly eGroups) site.
This is a web or mailing list based discussion forum where we talk about our
problems, successes and failures.
- The Tesla Turboshaft Project
David Young has been experimenting with the use of a Tesla turbine in an attempt
to build a self-sustaining turbojet engine. The site hasn't been updated for
quite a while but it's a very interesting read and a well documented project.
Other Interesting/Useful sites
- Jet-powered Bar Stool
Here's the world's only jet-powered bar-stool. Warning, don't drink and drive ;-)
- JetRacers
This is a YahooGroups site which invites all those who are interested in
racing jet-powered gokarts to join up.
- Mike's Gas Turbine Hobby Page
Check out Mikes impressive collection of gas turbine engines of all shapes
and sizes.
- Jet Kart And Bike
This site has pictures and video of a pressure-jet powered gokart and mountain
bike. Having built my own jet-kart I think Mr Gluehareff's claims that he got
45 mph with just 15lbs of thrust are a trifle optimistic.
- Patent Search
There are a lot of interesting patents that can be retrieved by searching for
"pulse-jet" or "jet engine" here.
- Jet Kart
A gokart powered by an 80HP APU turbine and which the builders hope will
set a new world record for turbine-powered vehicles weighing less than
500 KG (half a ton). (Nice sound files on this site).
- Balancing rotating assemblies
How to use an oscilloscope to perform dynamic balancing on rotating assemblies
such as turbocharger wheels and shafts (great, and highly useful stuff).
- A Jet-powered Motorcycle
Anyone interested in a road-bike with a 300 HP gas-turbine engine installed?
Seriously insane stuff!
- Geoff's e-jet
Electric cars have not yet lived up to the promise of providing a practical alternative
to their fossil-fueled peers so this owner of what looks like a GM EV1 decided
to spice up his car's performance and range by adding two small gas-turbine
engines. Go Geoff! :-)
- National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
This is an amazing compilation of NACA documents covering the timespan from
1917 to 1958, many of which were previously classified. Search for "gas turbine"
or "jet" and you'll find some excellent research material (in PDF).
- Principles of jet engine operation
Some interesting theory and diagrams explaining how gas-turbine jet engines
work.
- How it Works: Small Gas Turbine Engine (APU)
An excellent explanation (with pictures) of how a small APU (auxiliary
power unit) gas turbine engine is constructed and operates.
- The Bell CB47 Gas Turbine engine
An excellent site detailing the inner workings of one of the most popular
turboshaft engines in helicopter aviation. It's interesting to see just
how simple a "real" gas turbine engine can be.
- The EuroJet 200 powerplant
Lots of interesting information on the engine that is designed to power the new
Eurofighter.
- TTL Engine Development News
A daring new gas turbine engine design with 320 lbs of thrust and oriented towards
homebuilt and small aircraft.
- The Whittle W2/700 Jet Engine
Some nice pictures of an original Frank Whittle engine, including one shot of
the engine running.
If you know of others, please contact me
with the details and I'll add them.
If you have your own site with pulse jet or turbine related material on it (or not) then
please feel free to link to this site. If your site isn't listed here then
I'll be happy to add it -- just drop me a line
If you're planning to build, or having trouble with a homebuilt jet engine
then feel free to leave a question in the
help forum
where you're sure to get some assistance.
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