wonwinglo

A revolutionery new product took the modelling world with a storm with the introduction of the Jetex motor,basically a sealed tube within which was placed three solid capsules of expanding gas,a wick was threaded between the capsules which ended in a gauze wire which then went through a fine nozzle at the end,as the wick was ignited it burned through the brown coloured capsules hissing and eventually giving off a few valuable seconds of useful thrust to power your lightweight jet model.
The motors got very hot and a most essential feature was to ensure that some asbestos or safer silver paper was placed into the semi shaped tunnel under the fuselage of the model,otherwise there certainly was a fire hazard as cellulose doped tissue ignited ! another quirk of these motors was the wick needed sometimes to be manually ejected as it stuck in the nozzle of the motor causing erratic thrust.
Early Jetex motors were made from aluminium but after a few failures a brand new motor was introduced which consisted of a stainless sealed tube which had a large spring clip which held everything in place,the 50 size was the most popular but they built a series 100 which used an augmentor tube that was mounted inside the fuselage to direct and augment the thrust.
They even produced their own model kits with moulded balsa fuselages for such types as the North American Super Sabre,Skyray etc.
What happened to the originators of Jetex ? well the company was taken over by Sebel products who continued production,after a lull interest was once again generated in the Jetex motors and they can still be obtained today,however I only know about the historical aspects of this fascinating revolutionery product,it is fair to say that a few people who experimented with them were successful in getting good flights,however the model had to be built very light to get the best from this product.
Also gaining popularity today are the rocket type units which are now available as refined versions which run smoother and can be fitted in such types as the Messerschmitt Me.163 Komet etc,these are more powerful than the original Jetex.
I once built a V-1 model powered with ordinary firework rockets,the flight path can best be described as scary and you certainly needed the hard hat !

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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