Do you remember Jetex?

[Scott Richlen]

Not CL Stunt, but interesting.

When I was a kid I really wanted one of these. but never lived near a hobby shop that carried them.  Later, they disappeared from the market.  Now this:



Is there hope?

I just ran across this and hadn't seen anything about it previously.  Too bad the national fake news never informs us of stuff that actually matters.

[Carl Cisneros]

/i used to fly the zetex models when  was in jr. high school.

hardest part was getting the fuses to stay in contact with the propellant for igniting it.
had a great time with them.

[George]

Not CL Stunt, but interesting.

When I was a kid I really wanted one of these. but never lived near a hobby shop that carried them.  Later, they disappeared from the market.  Now this:

Is there hope?

I just ran across this and hadn't seen anything about it previously.  Too bad the national fake news never informs us of stuff that actually matters.

 

Before Jet-X there was Jetex. Jetex came in various sizes from the "30" (I think) to the "Scorpion 600". Most of mine were the Jetex 50 size. There was even a Nats event using the "PAA 150". When Jet-X came out they undercut Jetex's pricing. The Jet-X 50 used the same fuel as the Jetex 50. I have no idea if there was relationship business wise. I THINK fuel shipping regulations did them in.

This is all from memories of the mid fifties so some of it may be incorrect.

George

[jfv]

I still have my Jetex PAA-Loader 150 motor.  Use it in 1959 to win the Mirror Meet PAA-Loader jet event as a Junior.

[Paul Smith]

I had several Jetex 50's.  I was never very successful with them.  The outlet hole kept getting clogged, causing the thrust to blow out the gasket and go into reverse. 

Babe Bees and rubber banks worked better.

Not to forget C02 cartridges which were a powerful & reliable source of ROCKET power.  100 times better than a Jetex.  CO2 cars were impressive.

[Dick Pacini]

I remember "sending in" (remember those magic words and payment with coins or stamps?) for a paper stock airplane that was powered with a Jetex 50 engine  for "scale speeds of 300 MPH!"  The plane assembled by sliding tabs into slots.  It was colorful as I recall.  However, mine never achieved the "scale 300MPH" but rather smoked and sputtered and flew only as fast as I could throw it.

A discovered use for the Jetex fuse was to wrap a piece around cigarette loads and watch them explode.  Both the cigarette loads and the fuse were available at the hobby shop.

My first real engine was a Cub .049 assembled from the $3.95 kit using pliers.  Didn't think I needed to spring for the required Cub wrench.

[Russell Shaffer]

My brother had a Jetex 50 that we flew when we could afford the fuel pellets.  We could get a lot more flying for our money with  a Cox 020. 

[Steve Helmick]

Best Jetex bang for the buck we had was a 150 powered profile X-15 from one of the magazines. It flew excellent. The glide was...uh...realistic. The Jetex 50's were frustrating.

Another gem was the profile all-balsa XB-70 profile from a Competition Models (Sal Taibi) kit. Flew well with a Pee Wee .020.  Steve

[Michael Boucher]

HI Steve, You're the first I have ever heard mention flying the XB-70. Did it fly well as designed or did you have to make changes to it? Thanks, Michael Boucher

[Steve Helmick]

Our XB-70 flew well right off the board, full tank of fuel, got way high, glided well. We flew it on Rosemond Dry Lake, part of Edwards AFB. We lived there in when they were flying the X-15 and setting speed and altitude records on a weekly basis. We didn't see the 1:1 scale XB-70 fly, but did see a B-58 taxi down the taxiway, fiddle around, turn around and taxi back. I guess it was broken. What a lovely airplane! We'd hike up on the hill by the O-Club to watch the runway and see the X-15 glide in to land. Kinda fun. Hot!  Steve

[Russell Shaffer]

 I'm one up on you Steve - I did get to see the B-70 fly.  You knew when that thing throttled up.  And yes, the B-58 most likely WAS broken.  A really super neat airplane that was a maintenance nightmare.   

[Brian Hampton]

I have a couple of tests of the various Jetex motors listed at http://sceptreflight.com/Model%20Engine%20Tests/Index.html plus a report on the augmentor tubes.

[Norm Faith Jr.]

I'm one up on you Steve - I did get to see the B-70 fly.  You knew when that thing throttled up.  And yes, the B-58 most likely WAS broken.  A really super neat airplane that was a maintenance nightmare.   

20 hours of maintenance for every hour flown. 
Norm

[Steve Helmick]

20 hours of maintenance for every hour flown. 
Norm

Isn't that less than a helicopter?  Steve

[peabody]

I saw the topic and my fingers hurt from the many burns I suffered with the damned things growing up....NEVER got one to work!

[bob whitney]

a Jet-x 50 on a hand launch glider was a great HI POINT event just use 1/2 a pellet anything more and it would come down faster than it went up

[Trostle]

Lots of current information on Jetex at

http://www.jetex.org/

There are recipes to make your own fuel pellets.

Keith

[Dennis Moritz]

We'd get some phhttt to work in NYC. Our engines burned out after a few flights. Always intriguing buggy and difficult to figure how to make reliable. Built a few nice sheet models. Spectacular launching them off my friends terrace 21 stories up. Viking burials. The models sailed off one last time, lit firecrackers ready to blow.

[Bill Mohrbacher]

Top Flite had a rubber powered Jig-Time kit called the Arrow-Jet.  You could leave out the rubber and prop and install a Jetex 50 on the bottom of the fuse and re balance the plane.  I did a couple of these and they flew just great.  The Arrow-Jet was a good plane on rubber and really neat on Jetex.

We also built little snow sleds, just piece of 1/16" ply about 3" x 6" with a keel and a 1"sq balsa top for the engine mount and canopy.  We mostly used the Jetex 50, but I also did one with the 150 Paaloader.  Man on the morning of a fresh snow, we'd get down to the ball field before there were any footprints and let out little sled loose.  Fast and Furious!

I built a Peter Pan Jet payload from 1956 FM plans and flew it in the 1957 Willow Grove nats without much luck.  In 1957 I scaled it up 150%, used a little GWS 2 1/2" or so electric ducted fan, and added mini RC.  It was and still is a sweet little sport job!  Dennis will like the VEE tail.

[Bob Heywood]

Jetex motors were a hoot. Ran them on Thermic B gliders and little tether cars, in the basement. Frank Scott's Mach Box was a great performing plane. Built light, they would go almost straight up.

As for the B-70, a couple of us bolted out of an engineering class at Wright State University and a Prof got us up on the roof of one of the buildings. He had a radio and we watched & listened as the last plane arrived at WPAFB on its final flight. We had a straight view down the main runway at Patterson Field as it landed. Unforgettable!

[dave siegler]

this is on my bucket list of sh*t I could not do as a kid. 

Is there a place to get either Rapiers or Jete-x units and fuel in the US?   

[Dan Berry]

Two notes:

Jetex is still an event at the FF Nats.
Chris Matsuno and Jackie Sheffer are masters at the art of flying Jetex. The maintenance and setup for the Jetex motor (?) is simply mid boggling.
It is truly an esoteric event.

The B70 kit has a history that a lot of people are not aware of.
In the hands of my buddy Mike Fedor, the B70 kit was responsible for an emergency rule in the AMA competition rule book.
Mike won the first Peanut Scale event at the Nats with it. It seems that when they wrote the first rules for Peanut Scale that they forgot to mention that the plane was to powered with a rubber band. A month after the Nats there was a rule in place requiring rubber power.

[Norm Furutani]

As a kid, I flew PanAm jr. Jet, using a Jetex 50. Later regular Paa load jet with the Jetex 150. Back then the prize for first was a Bulova Accutron watch and I really wanted to win. By the time I finally won the event, the watch prize became a cheesy transistor radio. I was bummed!

Norm, whose age is showing

[Brett Buck]

20 hours of maintenance for every hour flown. 
Norm

     The big flaw with the first (original) Jetex was the asbestos gasket and the endless leaks. Jet-X (the 80's-90's version) was vastly more reliable because they used a nice thick soft silicone rubber gasket. They still weren't any paragon of repetability but you could get them to work with some effort.

     Brett

[dennis lipsett]

Bob Davis of Davis Model products was responsible for trying to reintroduce Jetex to the free flight aficionados.
Still was made in England but the original fuel was no longer legal to make as it had used heavy metal particles in its composition. There were at least 3 different fuels that were sold and the new units were superior to the originals'. In Jetex defense I learned at an early age to drill a small hole into the pellet and insert the fuse into it. Reliability increased dramatically.
The 35,50 and 150 were made and I had sent him a new Jetex 600 for production purposes. Sadly it never went into production and I never got the sample back. also they made some special 50th  anniversary  examples for sale. the 150 was nicely anodized Gold and the 35 was purple
Ken Cook has most of the stuff I had and if they ever get a field to fly FF at I'm sure that he will get something in the air.

Dennis

[Bill Adair]

Pssst...Pssst...Pssst... Pssst...Pssst...!

The sound of my last new Jetex 50 - as it sailed into the brush, never to be seen again!        

Nozzle blockage cut the thrust immediately after hand launching, and the Jetex was shucked out of it's mount when the plane skimmed the ground. Tumbling across the yard somehow cleared the nozzle blockage, and it took off again - less the airplane and mount!

Took up control line, and never looked back. 

Bill

[Brett Buck]

Bob Davis of Davis Model products was responsible for trying to reintroduce Jetex to the free flight aficionados.
Still was made in England but the original fuel was no longer legal to make as it had used heavy metal particles in its composition. There were at least 3 different fuels that were sold and the new units were superior to the originals'. In Jetex defense I learned at an early age to drill a small hole into the pellet and insert the fuse into it. Reliability increased dramatically.

   The Jet-X pellets had the dimple/hole cast into it, which was another improvement. I still have maybe 25 pellets left, maybe I should figure out some way to use them.

   Rapiers were *far* better solution to the same thing, but you can't get those anymore, either. They were much closer to model rocket technology, which is astronomically more reliable that Jetex or Jet-X.

   Brett