good priced turbine for model r/c plane?

[grant richardson]

My god Jetcat turbines are HIGH i dont remeber the figure but they were in the $2K range. Ouch.

is there anyone building a turbine engine in a much better price bracket that could be used on a r/c plane?

I am thinking about getting a pulse jet too but i dont like the throttle issue with them .

[Lugebob]

They are all pretty much the same price to thrust ratio within a few hundred dollars, except for the "Jet Joe" brand which is made in China. IT is a cheap copy and can be made to work with... some mods. The best bet is to choose a turbine brand that can be maintained in your country. My JetCat cost me $4999.00 and then $4400.00 usd for the second one. Big price changes with euro against the dollar.

YOu may find some used deals on rcuniverse.com's classifieds

bob

[grant richardson]

Thanks for the reply.
DO you have a link for jet joes website? I google searched jet joe and i couldnt find anything.

Are turbines expensive to maintain? From what i understand these are not like IC engines where you buy it and just run it.

[skyfrog]

Hi,

Here is a link of jetjoe, but I don't recommend it :

http://www.jetjoe.com/main.php

You can try WASP too, 20lbf, designed by Phill Heward, not too expensive and the design is superb, smaller, lighter than KJ66, yet it is more powerful.

http://www.heward-microjets.co.uk/

[grant richardson]

Whats the probelm with the jet joes? I havent found much good about them. A buch of negitive responses but really no negitive things like expoding turbines and so on.

I guess it boils down to you get what you pay for in most cases.

Looks like the Pulse jet fits my buget much better. For the price of a good model turbine thats a nice payment on a real ultralight airplane that i can ride in! LOL

[Lugebob]

I see you got the "LIST" of turbines out there from the RCU site. There are a fair amount of companies making them, but it boils down to service. Many of the top manufactuers all make good reliable turbines, with factory maintenance cycles of 25 to 50 hours and up to a one year warranty. But like all things they can break at any time and most people do not have spares. So you want good , fast, service and your questions answered. I have had my JetCat P200 back to the factory for repair, and it was back in my hands across the USA twice in one week. They not only fixed the problem, they upgraded the Shaft and Burner Can to the latest revision for no charge. Several of the turbine companies are one man operations and they will respond when the can get around to it. Not good if you are passionate about your hobby or business.

Jet Joe is another story. I have been following this product for some time and it seems to be hit and miss... miss most of the time. They make a turbine but it seems to not run right out of the package. People are having to make several mods to make it run mostly right and all are concerned about voids in the compressor and turbine wheel castings as they are not xrayed, or dynamically balanced as a set unit.

These engines are fun and expensive... but not that expensive... still less than a new dirt bike.

bob