Many were skeptical after the first video, including me. Yet my skepticism lost some ground when I looked further into the capabilities of Jetcatusa micro turbines. A few weeks ago after that first flight, he announced an upcoming major public demo later in April, when interviewed by a French magazine ...
Well, he delivered.
2.2 km.
This is huge, imho.
Earlier video and related thread here.
Comments
Thanks! I'd appreciate answers to some followon questions if you would be so kind.
Thanks!
Hi Bill,
I've been looking at this technology more from a conventional (unmanned) use of drones and application point of view, but this applies to a manned use also.
To address you points more precisely. imho ...
- Airframe: Don't think you are missing anything.
- High temperatures: Can be insulated
- Massive vibration: Yes. Would need some advanced mechanical dampening. Not trivial, but seems feasible to me.
- Control system: I don't see it as needing to be fundamentally any different than a generic drone. The fact that the payload is on top does not make a big difference once the stabilization control problem is solved. (There is often a big misconception about stability and the thinking that a payload at the bottom "stabilizes" things). That said I think Ben's previous comment is a good one, pointing out that jet engines react differently and more slowly than a conventional propeller motor combination, hence the current lack of stability and the requirement for a very good on board pilot right now. But turbines implementing some vectored thrust could take care of that, e.g. with turbines on gimbals.
- Applications. Many of the same applications that drones are and will be used for, where payload is heavy and VTOL is a must: Much more thrust in a small package, at the price of more limited flight time. Higher cost also, (these turbines are $5-$10 thousand each now) but this would likely come down significantly if this technology was developed on a larger scale.
All in all I think this is a very promising technology down the road. Developing it further would require some funding (probably a couple millions to get started, actually not much for this type of thing), build two or three prototypes and gather several mechanical, aerospace, control, a embedded systems engineers, etc ... Something I am actually looking into, although not actively as I'd like.
I am new here and would appreciate your guys insight into some basic questions. Assuming you have the engines required and don't mind flying with kerosine strapped to your back.... What you guys see as the issues that need to be managed in building such a device? E.g.
Thanks!
The turbines react slower than would propellers do, even with a good flight controller, I think the pilot has to do most of the balancing himself. Probably gives the feeling of walking on a rope.
Now a system that would act on the jet angle could act faster and help balancing.
guess that if you can strap that turbine to a camera gimbal pointing to zenit / nadir you are pretty much done. I guess rockets have some same kind of guidance
Paul, I can't think of any reason why it couldn't be fitted with an autopilot. Right now it looks like it's pretty much the equivalent of a gyro rate only, early KK board fitted super quad. The propulsion part was the hard part, and it's there.
As mentioned, ArduJet, or APM:Jet! ;)
I am also quite puzzled by that fact that the military, Raytheons, Lockeed Martin, et al don't already have this sort of thing and are not actively working on it. Well, maybe they do and we don't know ...
@Oliver, if somebody can get directional on this jetcat turbines and combine it with some kind of autopilot the majority of the commercial drones (apart the winged ones) can close shop...
Same. Seemed to be pretty stable altitude wise.
Besides the obvious use as a possible future personal transportation system, what I find groundbreaking with this emerging technology is the unmatched size to payload weight ratio. What else can fit in the back of a car and transport 60kg+ goods 2km away? And I think it's a safe bet that efficiency, payload capacity and range will only go up from here.
So many applications if "reconfigured" and repositioned as a UAV/drone, with full remote control and autonomy. Humanitarian applications in particular.
waterjet riding definitively #1 training for this stuff, the pilot is the algorithm
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