Small turbines for homebuilts?

Has there been any development of small jet engines for light aircraft, like
the engines used on the Eclipse 500? Small turbines would be great for high
performance homebuilts if they were cheap enough. Anything down to the
price level that could compete with high horsepower Lycoming's or
Continentals? Thanks,

David

David,

Not competing with high horsepower output like your top Lycombings or
Conti;s but interesting nevertheless.
Check out http://www.tjt.bz/ as these engines are being used very
successfully in gliders at the moment. No idea on performance figures, fuel
burn etc.

Chris

"ventus2" wrote in message
...
David,

Not competing with high horsepower output like your top Lycombings or
Conti;s but interesting nevertheless.
Check out http://www.tjt.bz/ as these engines are being used very
successfully in gliders at the moment. No idea on performance figures,
fuel
burn etc.

Chris


These little centrifugal turbojets are very inefficient consuming about
10GPH of Jet A for 50 pounds of thrust. Still, they are very cool.
Efficiencies are getting better so there's hope. I keep hearing rumors of a
8" diameter turbofan that would halve the fuel consumption.

Even today, they are a very interesting when applied to gliders. 50 pounds
of thrust would push my glider along at about 120 knots - probably a lot
more at high altitudes. Since it already has 75 gallon tanks in the wings
normally used for water ballast that could easily be converted to fuel
tanks, the range would be impressive. The airframes' aerodynamic efficiency
offsets the inefficient engine.

The engines tiny size and weight makes it easy to retract the engine into
the fuselage when flying as a glider.

Bill Daniels

Bill Daniels wrote:


"ventus2" wrote in message
...
David,

Not competing with high horsepower output like your top Lycombings or
Conti;s but interesting nevertheless.
Check out http://www.tjt.bz/ as these engines are being used very
successfully in gliders at the moment. No idea on performance figures,
fuel
burn etc.

Chris


These little centrifugal turbojets are very inefficient consuming about
10GPH of Jet A for 50 pounds of thrust. Still, they are very cool.


There 30lb thrust model specs at 5.5 gal/hour (350ml/min) which isn't
horrible for a jet. At speed 30lb is roughly 30hp so it takes 3.3 times to
get 100hp so 18 gal/hour which is about 3 times more fuel than a ricip but
it sure could be a lot of fun ;-)
John

"John" wrote in message
...
Bill Daniels wrote:


"ventus2" wrote in message
...
David,

Not competing with high horsepower output like your top Lycombings or
Conti;s but interesting nevertheless.
Check out http://www.tjt.bz/ as these engines are being used very
successfully in gliders at the moment. No idea on performance figures,
fuel
burn etc.

Chris


These little centrifugal turbojets are very inefficient consuming about
10GPH of Jet A for 50 pounds of thrust. Still, they are very cool.


There 30lb thrust model specs at 5.5 gal/hour (350ml/min) which isn't
horrible for a jet. At speed 30lb is roughly 30hp so it takes 3.3 times to
get 100hp so 18 gal/hour which is about 3 times more fuel than a ricip but
it sure could be a lot of fun ;-)
John

If I recall correctly, one pound of thrust = one HP at around 325 knots.
That's quite a bit of 'at speed'.

Bill Daniels wrote:

There 30lb thrust model specs at 5.5 gal/hour (350ml/min) which isn't
horrible for a jet. At speed 30lb is roughly 30hp so it takes 3.3 times
to get 100hp so 18 gal/hour which is about 3 times more fuel than a ricip
but it sure could be a lot of fun ;-)
John

If I recall correctly, one pound of thrust = one HP at around 325 knots.
That's quite a bit of 'at speed'.

That sounds about right, I didn't have the figures in front of me. Even so
if you slowed it down to 150-200 you'd still have a fairly potent engine
for the weight. And it still would be a blast!
John

This ha actually been done here in Sweden. Two "model size" turbojets
atop the fuselage of a two-seat glider. Not enoug thrust for take-off
but plenty of power to fly home in marginal conditions to avoid an
"out" landing. I beleive they quoted 1-2 m/s climb rate.

...Not enough thrust for take-off ...

If your plane is small enough...

http://flight.cz/cricri/photos/unsor...10_gallery.jpg

Piero

If your plane is small enough...

http://flight.cz/cricri/photos/unsor...10_gallery.jpg

I believe that plane lifted off from the roof of a speeding car, so really,
not enough to take off. Perhaps if you had a very very long runway? g
--
Jim in NC

The most dependable, at the moment, are these

http://www.amtjets.com/

The top model gives 51,7 pounds of thrust.
I've seen many of them "At work" on RC models. Amazing.

Piero