From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Thu Dec 26 2002 - 02:36:22 MST
Avatar Polymorph wrote:
>
> 20 minutes would be somewhat practical. I'd assume MEMS tech could apply
> to jet packs. I'm surprised the military haven't developed this for
> specialized usages.
A licensee of Bell/Textron did a couple of turbine jet packs after the two
(more famous, but more limited) Wendell Moore rocket belts... I used to have promo
literature from Bell/Textron about both, but I fear it's long lost. This was late
'60s-early '70s stuff.
Diging through Smithsonian files gives me the name of Williams International
(formerly Williams Research Corp.) of Walled Lake, Michigan. Here's some info on
them these days:
http://www.eclipseaviation.com/inthenews/detail_02.htm?content_id=359
I believe Williams now makes small turbine engines for cruise missiles.
The US military looked seriously at both; I don't think the bang for buck was there yet.
Certainly the rocket belt was very limited (6 seconds rise, 6 seconds cruise, 6 seconds
descend and a 2 second safety margin was a typical flight profile).
And yes, MEMS turbines like the ones a group at MIT is working on would provide a huge
potential thrust to weight and thrust per watt, along with some gracefl failure modes if
massively redundant arrays are employed, and this has been noticed by some of the people
who are funding the work. ISTR some (ca 1996-8) Marine Corps paper on the matter.
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