U.S.A.F. PDWE tests videos and pictures!

I was looking around the net for info on PDWEs (Pulse Detonation Wave Engine) and to my great surprise I came across a military site that had videos and pics of these type of engine tests. So naturally I felt I should share this knowledge with my fellow ATS members. The tests in these videos took place between 1998 and 2003 and were conducted by the Air Force and other government agencies. The detailed information on these test are still classified but are probably not as classified as the engines in the "Aurora" aircraft which is supposes to be a deep black project... Anyway enjoy the video and pics and feel free to express your opinions on what you will see.

www.pr.afrl.af.mil...
Check out how this tests starts! Thats a serious amount of instant thrust!

www.pr.afrl.af.mil...
Look how hot the shafts get!

www.pr.afrl.af.mil...
Ground testing of a PDWE in an aircraft. (best video)

Pics of the PDWE in the above video:
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Link to more pictures: www.pr.afrl.af.mil...

Link to more PDWE tests videos:
www.pr.afrl.af.mil...

Souce and credits from: www.pr.afrl.af.mil...

EDIT NOTE: Re-sized your images. This may be of interest to you in the future? How to resize an image or picture [edit by Seekerof]

Thanks, I didnt know the size limit, I had them like 2048x1200 the first time, then I took them down to 1280x768. Guess they were still too big, ty Seekerof.

[edit on 6-5-2005 by beyondSciFi]

Awesome vids!Very cool technology.

Those things like like shiney chromed models of old V-1 engines. An artist named Mark Pauline has been making those for years, albeit not as complex. He uses them to blow things up during public shows.

srl.org.nyud.net:8090...

If you look carefully at his hands during the end of the vid, you can see he is missing about half of his fingers from various mishaps.

the technology is nothing new though...

I saw a bunch of scrap heap engineers build a drag racer with a pulse jet engine in 2 day's

Originally posted by Lucretius
the technology is nothing new though...

I saw a bunch of scrap heap engineers build a drag racer with a pulse jet engine in 2 day's

What these gus are doing is much different. You have to get the engines to run constantly and at high speed for aircraft use.

yes but the basic principle is the same...

of course an engine thrown together out of parts in a few day's is not going to rival a commercially developed pulse jet... but the basic theory is the same.

Originally posted by Lucretius
What these gus are doing is much different. You have to get the engines to run constantly and at high speed for aircraft use.

Not really. The V-1's could go until the missle disintegrated from high speed. The fuel rate was regulated down for low speeds, and it didn't stop until it ran out of gas. The craft was kept simple for mass production; the real problem was guidance. A V-2 was infinitely more complex and that went in a relatively simple arc tragectory. Imagine trying to follow a horizontal course at Mach5+ with 1940's technology and producing lots of them.

BeyondSiFi - Have they just done ground test? Or have they finally flew it?

I did a thread on this a while back...and I havn't seen any info on it recently regarding its status. BTW, the plane it gets mounted on is a Scaled Composties built one, called the Long-EZ. And the top speed there going to make this aircraft go is a wopping 200mph., Theres not much state-of-the-art about this program, there using off-the-shelf part from cars and stuff. There basically using a car engine, so its a internal combustion PDE...which is nothing spectacular.

The "real" PDE's that big companies are working on like GE & P&W are nothing like this. having a combustion engine type of design would be much much easier for the average joe, because everything you need you can buy or make with ease. But military ones are state-of-the-art, and one of a kind.

I dont expect to see PDE's common place for another 10-15 years, and by common place, I mean in military jets...it would be a while after that before commercial, because they are un-godly loud. However there is promise that they will be used on commercial airliners, I would say 20 years or so, They will likely be hybrids, the aircraft will still have turbojet engines, but the air around them (in the pod on the wing of an airliner the turbojet engine is in the middle of it and around that is air that just gets bypassed) that just gets ignored will be where the tubes are placed for the PDE, the airliner will take off just like they do today, but once it gets high enough where people on the ground cant hear it they can switch to the PDE and go supersonic, they can do mach 4 with using the same fuel turbojets use (hydrocarbon fuel), but if they have there own fuel supply of Hydrogen, they can do much more. But of course there always the heat factor, Titanium is good enough for sustained mach 4 flight, but mach 5 is pushing it. PDE's produce more thrust then a normal jet engine, yet consume 30 to 50 percent less fuel.

Heres a picture of a "real" PDE in action, This was done at China Lake in California, It's classified how much thrust was produced in the test, however they did say that it had enough to power a missile.





P&W PDE test video (at night)

Originally posted by Murcielago
Have they just done ground test? Or have they finally flew it?

All I could find was this:

5. What are the goals of the flight project?


The goals of the PDE flight project are to propel an aircraft using a PDE, to investigate the acoustical and vibrational impact of a PDE on an airframe and pilot, and to demonstrate the potential of PDE’s to the combustion research community. This demonstration, the first of its kind, represents the first step toward developing PDE’s as a viable propulsion technology.. While the plane will not be “Flight Certified,” an FAA Phase II Airworthiness Certificate will be obtained.

We should point out this is not an engine demo. The PDE has been constructed at low cost and from the perspective of a research, proof-of-concept endeavor. While sufficiently durable to meet FAA/EA oversight and regulations, the engine is not intended for mass production or extended operation. The system has been designed to demonstrate subsonic PDE flight at approximately 200 MPH. The engine is valve-area limited and not designed to demonstrate high thrust capabilities.

So from that I read, you are right about the Long-ez aircraft. But I couldn't find if they actually made it flew yet, probably not because I think they would have posted some news on the site if they did.

P.S. Do you have any more information on the PDWE you posted, you have caught my attension.

[edit on 8-5-2005 by beyondSciFi]

Now that is an exciting test! Was that high speed drone noise the actual sound of the engine, or was it an external motor used to spin up the test platform? The flames coming out of the engine were odd looking; they didn't seem as well defined as the exhaust from a turbofan at afterburner...could this have simply been a low-speed test? Great clip!




[edit on 8/5/05 by Templarum]