On Sat, 6 Dec 2003 02:46:55 -0800, Conrad Hodson
wrote:

It was an amazingly simple contraption, a jet with no moving parts.

Actually, most of them have moving parts in the intake end; reed valves or
spring-loaded flaps. Without those you wouldn't have much of an engine,
it'd just sit there and fart flame out both ends.

Which is why most valveless pulsejets ( the ones with no moving
parts) are designed to have the intake and exhaust tubes both facing
in the same direction -- towards the rear.

The one I used on Scrapheap/JunkyardWars was based on the engine that
Lockwood developed for Hiller in the 1960s. This in turn was based on
much earlier designs developed in Europe a few decades earlier. In
essence, Lockwood simply optimized the European designs for use as a
"lift" engine which produces maximum thrust at comparitively low
airspeeds.

--
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