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Baby V-1 "Dyna-Jet" Flies for Fun
May 1946 Popular Science

May 1946 Popular Science
May 1946 Popular Science Cover - RF Cafe[Table of Contents]

Wax nostalgic over early technology. See articles from Popular Science, published 1872 - 2021. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

When Dyna-Jet engine in new or like-new condition is listed for sale or auction on eBay, it usually sells for north of $500. Sometimes buyers get lucky and win an auction for less. This 1946 Popular Science magazine article entitled "Baby V-1 Flies for Fun" appeared just a year after Germany had surrendered unconditionally. Only a year before that, Londoners ran for cover in underground shelters when V-1 "Buzz Bombs" (referred to here as the portmanteau "robomb" - robots+bomb - here) were heard making their tell-tale 45 Hz "buzz" (or clacking) noise as they made their way toward England. "V-1" was from the German Vergeltungswaffe 1 meaning "Vengeance Weapon 1." The only reference to a "robomb" (other than for the Super Mario game) I see other than this article is from a 1944 issue of Time magazines entitled, "Science: How the Robomb Works." As Paul Harvey would famously say, "Now you know... the Rest of the story."

Baby V-1 Flies for Fun

 - Airplanes and Rockets

Tiny jet built to power models drives toy car 150 miles an hour 

The same kind of a pulse-jet engine that poured winged bombs - V-1s - on England in 1944 has now been reproduced in miniature to power model airplanes, automobiles and boats. The inventors, William L. Tenney and Charles Marks of Minneapolis, have shrunk the Nazi engine to toy size. For its measurements, it probably is the most powerful package of energy ever produced. It will drive a miniature automobile, for example, 150 miles an hour.

The 12-foot Nazi jet produced a "thrust" of 600 pounds. The 21-inch baby jet supplies a thrust of three pounds when not moving, more than that when movement rams air through the spring shutters in its nose. Tenney states that his company, Aeromarine, can go the Nazis one better by producing from 600 to 800 pounds of thrust with an engine less than three feet long and 16 inches in diameter. The V-1 power unit was 22 inches in diameter.

In larger sizes, the inventor believes, this "Dyna-jet" could be used to drive full-scale airplanes, racing cars and boats. He foresees its use as a "life preserver of the air," supplying power for air transports in case of engine failure. It could also, he says, afford extra bursts of speed for fighter planes and for the take-off of heavy planes.

"Dyna-jet" tube holds only six ports - Airplanes and Rockets

The "Dyna-jet" tube holds only six ports, made of stainless and spring steels and aluminum.

Bicycle pump supplies the tiny jet with compressed air for starting - Airplanes and Rockets

A bicycle pump supplies the tiny jet, mounted on a toy car, with compressed air for starting.

Baby V-1 Flies for Fun, May 1946 Popular Science - Airplanes and Rockets

Tiny jet built to power models drives toy car 150 miles an hour.

Flame a few inches long does issue from the thrust pipe - Airplanes and Rockets

The baby jet engine is simple, light, powerful - and can be held safely. A flame a few inches long does issue from the thrust pipe but beyond the flame's tip the heat is dissipated rapidly.  

Inventors Tenney and Marks confounded their critics - Airplanes and Rockets

Inventors Tenney and Marks confounded their critics, who predicted the jet engine would burn fingers and ignite model planes and boats, by wrapping it in balsa wood.  

"Dyna-jet" consumes fuel at the rate of two to three ounces minute - Airplanes and Rockets

The "Dyna-jet" consumes fuel, from a household oil can, at the rate of two to three ounces minute; operates from 12 to 15 seconds on it.  

Like the original jet on the robomb, the "Dyna-jet" is economical of parts. And only one of them - the shutters that alternately receive and shut off the entrance of air in the combustion chamber - moves. The entire assembly weighs only a pound. Its fuel is gasoline, kerosene or stove oil.

Like the big jet, it uses compressed air, but for a different reason. The robomb contained two cylindrical bottles of compressed air to drive three gyroscopes that governed its flight. The "Dyna-jet" uses compressed air to provide a combustible mixture in the firing chamber to start the engine. Both jet engines use a spark plug for ignition.

There is another marked difference between the two engines. The robomb's engine pulsed at a rate of about 45 times a second. The baby jet pulses up to 250 times a second.

It was test flown in Dayton, Ohio, in March, but prior to that had driven miniature racing cars and boats.

 

 

Posted August 24, 2024

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