Mini Rolls Royce Pegasus Engine?

Question

does anybody know of or read about someone making a scale version of the rolls royce pegasus engine

Answer 1

The key feature of the 'Peggy' is that the fans in the engine contra-rotate on each shaft ie the first compressor turns clockwise the second anti-clockwise (counter clockwise if you are in the US).

If they didn't have this amazing bit of engineering genius the gyroscopic effect of all that metal spinning in the same direction would cause the Harrier to rotate alarmingly and uncontrollably in the hover (imagine a helicopter with no tail rotor) and (on vertical take-off and landing) would result in the production of an expensive heap of scrap metal.

I can't magine that anyone would attempt to produce a small-scale version of such an engine but there are a lot of dedicated madmen out there so who knows?

Richard C

Answer 2

I don't know about the Pegasus, but there are a number of very small turbojet engines out there.  They're a little pricey, starting at around $2000, and are used in flying scale models of jet aircraft.