Jetex made a low power "rocket" motor that was cheap and safe. Several decades ago they were fairly popular with modelers who wanted to build small jet like models.
It appears that someone is trying to bring the idea back.
I built a few models with Jetex motors as a kid, but what we daydreamed about were Dynajets. These were fairly frightening pulse jet engines that were louder than they were powerful. One model airplane flyer in town used to fly a ukie speed model with this type of engine and regularly saw 160mph, so you get an idea of how noisy these things were.
Now the leading edge of modeling has moved on to real gas turbines, but nothing is as noisy as the old pulsejets.
You could have a lot of fun with those engines.
Posted by: dave | December 03, 2003 at 23:17
Hi . . .
Actually, it's a little more involved than "trying to bring the idea back" but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I'm the owner of that Jetex site and moderator of a complementary discussion group, Model Jet Plane, which is populated by a world-wide base of model airplane enthusiasts who fly small planes with a variety of different reaction (i.e.: rocket) motors. Jetex is, of course, the word that pops into most people's minds when they think of this sort of thing but most of the actual flying that get done these days is accomplished with a very small disposable cardboard tube motor made in the Czech Republic - the Rapier. These have proven
to be a little easier to use than the old metal Jetex motors, which had to be cleaned and reloaded after each flight, and they have really reinvigorated the concept in recent years of flying inexpensive model airplanes with something other than a spinning propeller up front.
You allude the Dyna-Jet and, yes, these are often mentioned within the same breath as Jetex but
the only thing that these large fire breathing monsters have in common with the diminutive Jetex is that they appeared on the market at around the same time (late 1940's). If one is independently wealthy than, yes, you can participate in the "cutting edge" of jet powered modeling these days with a gas turbine motor but our goal is to allow airplane modelers to have fun with a "jet" for considerably less money.
Thanks for letting me chat here and have a happy new year.
Posted by: Benjamin Nead | December 30, 2003 at 23:22
lisya
Posted by: lisya gon | December 16, 2004 at 06:27
Jetex came in several size engines, I could only afford the small one, engine consisted of a nozzle with
a tension clamp that was rotated over the fuel "can" to hold it in place, recharging was simple, remove the clamp
and then the can, clean the nozzle and screen (between
the nozzle opening and the fuel pellet), load a new pellet
into the can along with a new piece of fuze, replace the can into the nozzle flange and retate the clamp to hold it in place. After ignition it took the engine a second or two to reach full thrust and then off she went into the
sky. Pellets were a medium brown color, fuze a dark brown
dip around a copper wire, funny I can remember all this
some 50 years ago ! Sure was fun ! Exhaust was a gray
smoke trail following the engine, lasted for aabout 10-15 seconds and then off to find the remains of the airplane !
Posted by: Frank1946@aol.com | January 30, 2007 at 00:28