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NT/1 TurboJET After this, be sure to see: NT/3 This series of photos shows the very first of several small turbo-jet engines I built for kicks starting. I built them all from scratch, with no plans, using old car and truck turbochargers and scrap materials from our family owned welding & fabricating shop. (we make custom attachments for heavy equipment). I had never seen a turbo turbine before, I thought I was the first to build one, turns out the US air force beat me to it by about 8 years with their "Ultra Low Cost Turbojet" project. My first turbojet NT/1 shown here was made using an old worn-out Buick LeSabre turbo, a piece of two inch rad hose and some three inch muffler pipe for a combustor. I spun an old Chevy distributor in a lathe to provide spark and used acetylene from a cutting torch as fuel, lubrication was by means of an oil-can (manually pumped every few seconds) and starting was facilitated by spinning the turbo with a shop air gun, a joke, yes, but to my joy and amazement, it worked. I was so thrilled at how easily I was able to build and run this little jet that I decided to dive right in and build a bigger one.
The spark plug lead and the fuel line were simply pinched between the turbo outlet and 2" air hose with some silicone and a hose clamp. Slightly leaky, but good enough to run. There are more photos of NT/1 on the NT Infopack CD, but unfortunately no photos exist of the complete running unit. We may build a replica someday, but for now we are on to bigger and better things. If you like what you have seen so far, check out our subsequent project; The NT/3 TurboJET Want to know more?
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