Jet powered hijinks

posted Sep 29th 2009 2:15pm by
filed under: misc hacks, transportation hacks

This jet powered carousel is brought to you by the Madagascar Institute. They convene, or collide, to create large scale art, sculptures, and rides. This one seems to fit the last definition. The two gentlemen are strapped to a jet powered carousel. It actually looks pretty fun, but we would have been needing some fresh shorts after the jet bursts into flames near the end. He didn’t seem too concerned, he wasn’t screaming and flailing his arms at least.

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21 Responses to Jet powered hijinks

  • Frollard says:
    September 29, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTeevHnWmNQ

    how about we embed the one that ISNT destroyed and garbage encoded…

    Reply Report comment
  • Wolf says:
    September 29, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    Lol, that’s awesome. I’m surprised that these engines didn’t seam to heat up too much. Most homebrew pulsejets I’ve seen end up glowing cherry red after only a few seconds. I guess the airflow must help.

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  • Shaun says:
    September 29, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    I’d love to see one of these at Burning Man :D

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  • The_Evil_Machinist says:
    September 29, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    HOLY SHIT BALLS TOPPED WITH BANANAS!

    Reply Report comment
  • monkeyslayer56 says:
    September 29, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    :) that is cool and love the sign at the begining

    Reply Report comment
  • Buzzkill says:
    September 29, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    A braking system to stop it when the jets go out would be a handy add-on.

    Reply Report comment
  • Hirudinea says:
    September 29, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHA!

    Reply Report comment
  • kuhl says:
    September 29, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    I want one at my next birthday party!

    Reply Report comment
  • EdZ says:
    September 29, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    That is a fantastically dangerous contraption, and I want a go.

    @Wolf
    It’s likely the ambient light drowns it out. You can still see the glow after a minute or two anyway.

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  • Aviator747 says:
    September 29, 2009 at 8:36 pm

    Pulse jets are cool.

    Reply Report comment
  • cyanide says:
    September 29, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    A+ for creativity and imagination. A+ for the engines and A+ for the application idea.

    F- for design and implementation. To the three people in the video: If you plan to keep at this, make sure you’ve each declared an heir so they know who to deliver your Darwin award to.

    Reply Report comment
  • daler says:
    September 29, 2009 at 8:49 pm

    @buzzkill
    It would have to really gentle; lest the swings wrap themselves around the central pole.

    Of course, he could replace the ropes/chains with rigid metal poles on hinges. Or mount thrusters of some sort on the front of the swings.

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  • daler says:
    September 29, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    Whoops, looks like they did use solid poles. It looked like chain in the video posted by Caleb.

    Reply Report comment
  • Scott says:
    September 29, 2009 at 9:31 pm

    I’ve got my iTunes playlist going in the background, and just as this video started, ‘Danger Zone’ started playing. Seems appropriate, if a bit silly.

    Reply Report comment
  • Alan Parekh says:
    September 29, 2009 at 9:51 pm

    Wow that looks seriously dangerous (but they didn’t die so I would give it a go)! Doesn’t look like there is much keeping it upright other than some well balanced riders.

    Reply Report comment
  • therian says:
    September 29, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    show the full speed full speed !

    Reply Report comment
  • triton says:
    September 29, 2009 at 11:06 pm

    gotta love Hiller-Lockwood pulsejets!

    Reply Report comment
  • M4CGYV3R says:
    September 29, 2009 at 11:58 pm

    That’s gotta be the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen on Hack-A-Day…

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  • Wileama says:
    September 30, 2009 at 1:08 am

    As a professional helicopter maintainer I can’t help, but worry a little about plane of rotation on those engines. If the compressor section should fly apart during the middle of a run, shrapnel is going to get everyone nearby. Well everyone, but who ever is riding in front of it. That’s the least likely time for the compressor to critically fail like that I know, but still. Especially considering the flame out during the run I can’t imagine these are very safe engines.

    As to a brake, yes it would be a good feature. Most helicopters have a brake for the rotor. It just happens that when you apply it when the rotors are at near full speed bad things happen. So long as it wasn’t applied above say 10% of maximum rotation everything would be fine.

    A brake could also serve to hold the seats still, until your ready to spin up. This would mean fewer people standing around when the engines are being spun up. Which just so happens to be the time said engines are most likely to explode in a deadly cloud of shrapnel.

    Finally: Yes despite how absurdly dangerous that thing is it’s whicked awesome.

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  • Shellite says:
    September 30, 2009 at 2:09 am

    Wileama: What compressor? Spinning up?? These are pulse jets! There are no rotating parts or even much risk of shrapnel :)

    Reply Report comment
  • Used Parts Washer says:
    October 20, 2009 at 2:40 am

    Looks dangerous but fun at the same time. Those two words can go together at least.

    Reply Report comment

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