V-1 PulseJet

[GregP]

Here is a video link:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTv7dfs_Mlc

I was one of three guys who restored a V-1 Pulsejet and we spent a year and a half just learning to run it. In 2009 we pushed my pickup down the Chino runway during the airshow with it and it was recorded b y the media. Hope you enjoy it. The cowling around the pulsejet front end is our own design, but the rest is restored and the ONLY reason we could restore this is becuase this unit was mnounted on a test stand with all the stuff still attached. I have pic of it as we found it and it is BAD.

We had to restore it all, and we had to machine a mold and make a rubber diaphragm to run the fuel metering unit ... that one took about a year and 20+ failures. Then we had to learn to run it on our own (no books or manuals).

We still havve it and can run it when the museum allows us to. It is really interesting at night. The whole tube glows red!

 

[nuuumannn]

Very cool, Greg! I hope you guys on the truck were wearing ear defenders, the noise wuld have been deafening up close.

 

[GregP]

Yes we were and you can hear it for 10 miles! Though it is my truck, I'm the guy behind the driver. We accelerated to about 15 mph abd then simply let the pulsejet push us. We made it down the runway to the expected turnoff and ran the pulsejet for about 1 minute and 10 seconds. We aribtrarily stopped there since we decided to stop when the temperature hit 1000°F. We want the valves to last a long time and don't run it any hotter than that.

I was operating the engine starting and monitor box. I started the pulsejet and then Robin Scott, the main restorer, put it into cruise power mode and I shut off both the ignition and the compressed air. Actually, you turn off the compressed air first because it would blow out the rubber diaphragm. You manually operate the fuel controller to get into high power, turn off the compresed air, and shut off the ignition after that. Took us awhile to figure it all out. Many beers were consumed trying to get it to function, but it DOES now.

This was out T-Shirt Art:

View attachment 221939

Note it doesn't say Planes of Fame; it says "Pains of Flame" ... got the pic from Romantic Technofreak, our friend RT.

 

[stona]

Aaaaah! the white cliffs of Dover..........but that's definitely not a bluebird

Very cool video.

Steve

 

[Airframes]

Great stuff, and I like the T shirt art. Looks like St. Margarets bay just under the wing of the V1.

 

[nuuumannn]

That tee is awesome! Great stuff, Greg, thanks for the extra info - I wondered whether the pulse jet was driving the truck a little.

 

[GregP]

Somewhat to our surprise, the cowling added another 30% or so to the thrust. I suppose it smoothed the airflow around the otherwise square valve assembly intake. We had to make sure to stop the pulsetjet before making any turn whatsoever ... it could easily tip the truck over.

But the stop stich is a sure-fire way to cut it off ... turn off the fuel pump and it quits immediately! Burns 2.2 US gallons a minute at idle and 3.3 US gallons a minuite at cruise power. Since we only have a 5 gallon tank, it wasn't going to run too long anyway.