V6 Engine, Working Paper Model

pretty fucking cool!

http://youtu.be/fT_hTHl4wWk

 

Way back in the olden days (bwahahahahaha I slay myself), I was in a class for machinists and we were studying jet engines. It was 6 weeks long and part of the deal was actually building a model jet engine out of wood. The main point of the exercise was to learn things like blade tip clearances and bearing alignment as well as proper airflow. At the end of the course they usually just tossed the model, which most of us thought was a serious waste. A few guys wanted to take it home, there was no way it would fit in luggage and shipping it would have cost a bundle.

So we decided to fire it up (after firing up some aromatic appetite stimulants chased with extract of hops). We used a tank of propane from the grill in the back of the shop and a sparkler to light the combustion section through a hole we drilled in because we didn't have a spark plug circuit. We spun the wooden turbine up to speed with an electric motor we used in class. When it was blowing air through a guy pushed in the lit sparkler as another guy opened the gas.

It started with a loud woosh, the sparkler was blown from the hole and the speed of the wooden engine increased dramatically for about 7 or 8 seconds. Then bits the wooden turbine blades started flying out of the exhaust and the wooden casing failed in several places in quick succession. Then it flew apart, still ejecting embers as the whole back end of the thing failed. There were no camera phones back then unfortunately. I'd love to do it again though.

 

That Was All New To Me, I Really Found It Interesting, Thanks Guys......



Cheers Glen.

 

So, i take it that the engine was correct at least in the geometry of it, but structurally not so much ... it probably wasn't expected to be subjected to real use cases.

 

Right, a wooden engine can only last so long. The compressor section didn't suffer much damage, but everything downstream was wrecked.

 

Yes but please do not place a match anywhere near it!!