Dyna-Jet story

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dynajetjerry
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Tue Oct 04, 2011 4:23 pm

Hi, Guys,
I've been back home since last May but am still having trouble getting pictures into my "book." I can't afford to pay the publisher for doing the "grunt" work that is needed but will get some help from library people.
Bad news! The nephew who helped me after my accident (Rodney Marker,) has suddenly died, at the age of 63! I stayed with him and his wife for about 6 months during which his health deteriorated. (Like me, he was a victim of diabetes and many other ailments, though he did not always obey all his doctor's recommendations.) He took a medical retirement from the USAF in 1989 but remained reasonably active; he was unable to do strenuous work.
His widow is still working full-time but is having trouble tying up all the loose ends brought on by Rodney's death. I offer a little help to her but am not up to anything difficult.
Wish us luck!
Jerry
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by Mike Everman » Thu Oct 06, 2011 4:23 pm

My condolences and good luck!
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by 55dcyinely » Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:42 am

Jerry
My condolences as well.
My Mother was a victim of diabetes and Alzheimer she pass in 2003.

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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Mon Oct 10, 2011 1:36 pm

Hello, everyone,
I thank all of you who've sent your condolences for our family's loss; I include those who sympathize even though they might not have communicated their feelings, on the internet.
My health isn't as good as it once was but I keep in mind all those, inside and outside our family, who are much worse than I. This includes my only surviving sibling, my 85-year old brother.
He retired from the Marines in 1968 after serving for 25 years and taking part in WW II, Korea (where he survived the dreadful march to Hungnam after being trapped at the "frozen Chosin,") and a tour in Vietnam. There, his exposure to Agent Orange led to lung cancer, though he aggravated the problem by smoking heavily. He is just barely holding his own, with the help of his wife, but seldom gets away from home, even though he is in reasonably good humor.
We've lost both our parents, 2 other brothers, and our only sister. Even so, a few of us have survived beyond our
"alloted" years.
I'll get back to my D-J story and try to complete it before the end of the year.
Thanks.
Jerry
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:11 pm

Hello again, everyone,

I have good news and bad news. The bad is that an old control-line/RC modeler friend died suddenly, in September, at age 88. He was Harry Roe and was a WW II ace who flew Mustangs in combat but was adept with many other planes. He also set several CL Speed records and flew several Dyna-Jet powered speed models. He worked extensively with Jaures Garofali at Super Tigre and Sejii Ogawa at O. S. when they were developing speed engines. I talked to him a few days before his death and had no clue that his health was deteriorating. Heart, I think.

The good news is that I'm getting much-appreciated help in finishing up my D-J scribblings. I've located a few more pictures to include in the book, totalling more than 105, now, and have lined up a publisher to get everything organized and printed. I hope to finish up by the end of this year, though I don't know exactly how much my costs will be nor how many I'll have printed. I'm not sure, either, as to how long it will take for them to be available for sale at about $50 apiece or whether anyone will be interested at that price.

In any case, I'm absolutely certain that, as I've admitted before, there is no way I'll earn enough to get back my investment. I don''t mind, really, because it has been an interesting exercise for me and salves my ego a little.

See ya!

Jerry
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by jengine1 » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:01 am

Jerry
I am a contemporary of yours and I live up the street in Michigan. I just stumbled across the Pulse Jet forums and I was fascinated because I was an owner and flyer of an early Minijet J-3.

After the war, two buddies and I chipped in to purchase a Minijet for $35 from a local model shop. It came with rudementary instructions and we put together the necessary running gear and tried to get it running. We weren't having much success and I can't believe that our neighbors didn't raise H--- with my parents from the noise.

But one day, late in the afternoon someone came to our door and introduced himself as ________ from G.M. Gianini in Los Angeles. (Don't recall his name anymore, but Bill Goodwin seems to ring a bell) He worked with us several hours in my basement shop cleaning up our test setup and tightening the fuel system. It was late evening by that time, so we took the setup to a deserted part of town and the man from G.M. Gianini showed how the Minijet should run!

Based on what he showed us, we designed and built several Minijet powered U-Control planes highlighted by a successful demonstration flight at an airshow at a local airport (have photo). That's about all I remember of that incident except I can only marvel at the perseverence of the Gianinni Company to send one of their technicians all over the country from Los Angeles, including Kansas City, to follow up on one of their $35 products. You don't see that much anymore.
Good Luck on your Dyna-Jet book.
John Swigart

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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:24 pm

John,
Many thanks for your information on experiences with your Minijet. I knew about James Kloth (pronounced with a long "O,") but never heard about Gianinni's follow-up on its sales. My original information came from John Swartzwelder near Seattle.
John has the largest collection of model jet engines I've ever seen (about 100 items,) as well as hundreds of all kinds of piston model engines. My brother and I visited him and his wife during a trip we took down the West Coast in 1998. We still trade Xmas cards each year but his eyesight is poor and my brother died several years ago.
Minijets are rather rare in the collecting hobby; I have two but never learned their model numbers, I also have many other engines, including about 35 pulsejets and the sole, definitely-identified, Stanley-made "Gremlin B."
My best wishes to you and your family.
Jerry Wiles
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:10 pm

Hi, Gang,
More good news & bad. I'm still refining my Dyna-Jet Story but find it to be slo-ow going. I keep fiddling with my prose and am never satisfied. I'll keep at it until I die or give up or get it printed (choose 1.)
My older brother (George,) died last Dec. 7, at 85 yrs., one day after I reached age 84. I'm the last survivor of our immediate family of 7. He was a Marine Corps veteran of WW II, the "frozen Chosin" of Korea, and Agent Orange of Vietnam. The last led to lung cancer (though he also smoked,) and it finally killed him.
During his years in Florida, he became acquainted with Marjorie (Maggie, to her friends,) Post (of General Foods and Post Cereals,) and was asked to escort her to several of her charity balls. She introduced George to her (then) son-in-law Cliff Robertson. She was quite a lady and knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it. Her Palm Beach estate was named "Marilago" and wound up owned by "The Donald." It cost her about $22 mil in 1922 but Trump got it for about $8 mil., 1990 dollars.
Allowing for inflation, that $22 mil is equivelant to about $500 mil or more, today!
George, his wife, and their Marine friends were allowed to swim in her pool. He told me her servants provided anything they desired while there!
Wish me luck!
Jerry
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by PyroJoe » Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:12 pm

Hi Jerry good to here from you.

Please print it!

If there is anything to add or edit you can post it here and we can pencil, paste it in.
Best of luck, Joe

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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:23 pm

Hi, Gang,
I'm attaching a few pages that I've written to show that I've not been sitting on my hands. They are re-arranged from their original 2-column layout, leading to a few unnecessary hyphens. When cleaned up and made more coherent, most of the typos will disappear (I hope.)
Inserting photos, at this time, is more work than I want to tackle but the appropriate captions are still there. (In the world of advertising, they would be called "teasers."
The finished "epic" will contain about 120 pages of text plus whatever is necessary for the 115 pictures.
Please bear with me and offer any opinions you wish. :)
Jerry
Attachments
Dyna-Jet Story Excerpts February 2012.doc
(76 KiB) Downloaded 696 times
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by Mark » Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:54 pm

I looked up that old article in Pop Science page 82 on the Dynajet you mentioned in the rough draft. As I was reading I also noticed another article where a teenage boy is making guncotton although the nitration formula provided was diluted nitric acid so as not to make it dangerous. Those were the days back then I guess, where you had more freedom with science as a kid.
I hope you finish your book Jerry, I liked reading about the evolution of the design. Pictures will add a lot to the story as well.
http://books.google.com/books?id=kiEDAA ... &q&f=false
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:31 pm

Mark,
The page 82 article you mentioned in Popular Science magazine also shows Charles B. Marks. He is holding the air pump (NOT a bicycle pump but one intended for auto tires.) He was the man who came up with a working, miniature p-j. Bill Tenney had nthing to do with it, initially, but was also bitten with the p-j bug.
Charles was back in Las Vegas when I was hired in 1949 but I'm sure I would have liked and admired him. Jerry Nolin told me all about Charlie and I appreciated his information. Jerry has also died, in 2009. at age 86. We got along great!
Jerry
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by Mark » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:58 pm

I wish there were some literature/history on the first small valved pulsejets on "the other side of the pond." Surely the earliest valved pulsejets had some small prototypes that were tested, I mean it would seem odd just to build a big one first, I don't know. And then too, it would be interesting to know what kinds of reeds were used. I know Marks borrowed the petal valve design from some patent for which don't recall what device it was used on, and of course his fueling didn't required a pressure feed which was is kind of nice and simple compared to more complex larger designs.
Last edited by Mark on Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by dynajetjerry » Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:21 pm

Mark,
There were many small p-js that originated in Europe but most were based on the Dyna-Jet. Deco, Juggernaut, Panorama, Super Tigre, Zanin, a Soviet design, and several others come to mind. All appear to have come out after the Minijet (1946,) and Dyna (also first offered in 1946.) I know of none before that. Japan and other countries also came out with miniatures but they, too, were later than the Mini and Dyna.
Bill Tenney told me (in 1950,) of research into valvless designs that were earlier but they were larger than model sizes.
I have no specific info on any of them but hope to learn more.
Thanks.
Jerry
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Re: Dyna-Jet story

Post by Mark » Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:29 pm

I remember seeing one design/sketch where the reeds were rectangular and the ports are set as 4 flat holes in a row that the reed covers. Then there were two or four rows, something like that. It may have been in some literature/article Don Laird sent me, perhaps not a design that was sold retail. Or it could have been some foreign design.
I wonder when the first valved pulsejets were made and if Reynst, Schmidt, Argus or others might have toyed with sizes in the Dynajet range, perhaps not hitting the market, just prototype research - perchance in the 1930's? I wonder what day and year the jam jar was invented? ha
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