A New School Take on an Old School System Finds Fans Among UAV Designers

The first set of J-1 engine systems from Wave Engine Corporation has been delivered to an unspecified government contractor, expected to be seen in use on some UAV platforms yet to reach the public eye.

What's old is new again, as the very familiar J-1 brings renewed dignity to an engine type that was once though obsolescent in the old WWII V-1 flying bombs. Today, of course, North American Wave Engine Corporation has been keen to label their offering as "Wave Engines", to help distinguish them from years of tut-tutting about the supposed inefficiency of the old pulsejet design. As it happens, the powerplant was only really waiting for some modern fuels and materials to come into its own: With today's tech, the J-1 becomes an excellent little jet for use on small, light weight UAVs, able to munch on a whole host of fuels all the way down to crappy E85. That's a solid offer to those who want a high-speed military UAV that's easy to deploy and not picky about what it eats. It's no wonder then, that Wave's testbed, the Scitor-D, bears a pretty strong resemblance to the legendary A-10 Thunderbolt.

Daanish Maqbool, CEO of Wave Engine Corp said that the J-1 is pretty much unbeatable in terms of cost to performance. “We are looking forward to working with our customers to increase production and bring an unmatched combination of cost, simplicity and flight performance to market.”

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to work with a company that pushes the boundaries of propulsion systems,” added Tombo Jones, director of the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership. They've helped oversee many of the J-1's test flights and engine tests. “The technology that they are working on marks an important step in advancement for the drone industry, so we were excited to have Wave Engine fly at our test site.”

FMI: www.wave-engine.com