USA: Researchers at the University of Colorado are building the smallest supersonic jet engine ever made

Record ID: 184859

  • Title: USA: Researchers at the University of Colorado are building the smallest supersonic jet engine ever made
  • Date: 5th June 2012
  • Summary: BOULDER, COLORADO, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) MINI JET PROTOTYPE IN LAB (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYAN STARKEY, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO-BOULDER, SAYING: "The engine that we have developed that we have tested in our lab is over twice as efficient as an off the shelf engine and our designs tell us that we can probably double that again which means we can now fly unmanned vehicles two to four times the range of a current engine on the same amount of fuel."
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVADOT2B4KDEJISKK0VEIMZ1OGXF
  • Story Text: It may be small, but this prototype jet engine packs a big punch. According to aerospace engineer Ryan Starkey, it will enable an unmanned aircraft he and his team have developed to fly faster than the speed of sound.
    "What we are doing is no different than a military jet. There are military drones that go this fast. Why what we are doing is unique is that we have shrunken it all down. You know, something that is 100 pounds going supersonic does not yet exist," said Starkey, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colrado-Boulder.
    Starkey says the mini jet drone will be able to fly faster and farther than anything of a similar size and weight - while using only a fraction of the fuel normally used in jet engines.
    "The engine that we have developed that we have tested in our lab is over twice as efficient as an off the shelf engine and our designs tell us that we can probably double that again which means we can now fly unmanned vehicles two to four times the range of a current engine on the same amount of fuel," said Starkey.
    Starkey says he and his team are putting the finishing touches on the jet with the hopes of shattering the aircraft speed record for its weight class later this year. Called the GoJett prototype it will weigh 110 lbs (50 kg), and measure five feet (1.5 m) wide by six feet (1.8 m) long. Starkey hopes his prototype will reach Mach 1.5 - more than one thousand miles (1700 kph) - per hour. But past breaking records, Starkey says the technology has real world application.
    "The ways we think about it is obviously is if you go really fast it has a military application. If you slow it down a little bit it can be used for hurricane penetration to do storm research. Across any type of speed regime what I think is the most exciting part for us is a low cost high speed flight test bed," said Starkey.
    It's a combination Starkey hopes the aerospace industry will find irresistible - a lower-cost, small-scale aircraft testing technology he says is almost ready for take off.
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