Can the Guy Next Door Build
His Own Cruise Missile? YES!
[and why that may not be the disaster you're expecting!]
- Part I [June 11, 2003] -
by Larry Cottrill, Editor, jetZILLA online magazine
_____________________________________________________
Note from the Author:
All opinions expressed in this series of articles are my own.
Mr Bruce Simpson was not consulted or interviewed in the
preparation of this article. He may, of course, respond publicly
or privately at any time, and is especially welcome to point out
anything he perceives to be in error in my description of his
activities. This article is not meant to either endorse or
disparage Mr Bruce Simpson or his ‘D-I-Y Cruise Missile’ project,
and is solely intended to give the public needed information,
along with another viewpoint, on this topic of interest.
_____________________________________________________
WHY NOW?
The current spate of interviews with New Zealander Bruce Simpson
concerning his ‘Do-It-Yourself Cruise Missile’ project has
brought on a sudden public awareness of the normally obscure
amateur pulsejet building hobby [an exciting avocation that
boasts maybe all of 200 participants, world-wide]. Bruce has been
regarded for some time by those of us engaged in this pursuit as
a genuine authority in the pulsejet hobby field, due to his
stature as an experimentor and his ability and willingness to
communicate his detailed knowledge to others, and especially to
beginners. Bruce has certainly proven that he can be a really
good teacher.
It came as a shock to many a few months ago when Bruce decided
to put up a page on his popular Website purporting to educate the
public on how easy it would be for a normally skilled person with
malicious intent to build, from scratch, a small jet-powered
cruise missile at low cost and without raising any eyebrows when
procuring the quite ordinary materials needed. The public at
large was mostly unaware of this project at first, and those not
“in the know” about pulsejet technology greeted the idea with
understandable skepticism. The Web being what it is, and the
nature of the project being what it is, public awareness of it
has grown exponentially. Now, human nature being what it is, so
has public perception of the project’s credibility.
Bruce is now being touted by the popular media as the only
living authority on the presumed "terrorist threat" of pulsejet-
powered homebuilt missiles. The rest of the equation is filled in
by a natural and recently heightened fear reaction, especially
here in the US. Using a bit of imagination, the malicious uses of
such a device are practically limitless: You could spray a
crowded sports arena with Anthrax or blast a power substation out
of commission with a small conventional explosive; instantly
pollute the local water treatment plant; in a dry season, start
massive forest fires overnight. The potential for mayhem is
seemingly endless.
NOISY HOBBY OR HOMELAND TERROR?
A small pulsejet going full roar 20 seconds after cold startup.
The thin, bent stainless steel tube inserted into the tailpipe
[secured in vise at left] is part of a gas velocity measurement
experiment. The engine shown is a standard DynaJet running white
gasoline as fuel. This is a fairly small engine, only 21 inches
[535mm] long x 2.5 inches [64mm] maximum diameter and weighing
1 lb [approx. 0.5 kg], but many homebuilt engines are much larger.
Some types of pulsejets can be homebuilt very simply and
inexpensively, with minimal tooling and virtually no machining!
Photo Copyright 2003 Cottrill Cyclodyne Corp.
IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE?
What would you need to do to bring such a scheme to fruition?
Well, after some careful planning and design work, you’d have to
accomplish, basically, the following:
- Build a large, fast, rugged model airplane of sufficient
size to carry the deadly payload [and necessary fuel and
equipment] successfully to the desired target site
- Build a working jet engine out of new and/or scrap metal
[mostly some kind of sheet metal, assembled by welding]
- Build a guidance system [could be radio controlled,
pre-programmed dead reckoning with gyro guidance, GPS guidance,
or some combined system]
- Build a launching device to get the model up to speed
quickly when finally needed [this could supposedly consist
of a fast car, van or small truck]
- Perform extensive testing, without detection
- At the chosen moment in the wee hours, make a fast run down
the road and launch your device at the intended target;
then beat it back home and wait for the media coverage to
start
Bruce’s now-famous “construction diary” site page clearly lays
out his version of this sequence, broken down in greater detail,
under the ‘Project Milestones’ heading. The subheadings will be
turned into links to detail pages as the project moves forward.
[The link to this page on Bruce’s site is listed at the bottom of
this article.] It seems obvious that, at least in Bruce’s capable
hands, such a plan is feasible.
SO, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
EVERYBODY involved in the pulsejet hobby knows you can do this.
Probably, every R/C [Radio Control] airplane jockey can at least
envision doing it, by assuming that the engine part of the system
can be made feasible. It's just a gluing together of lots of
over-the-counter technology, put together in a way guaranteeing
that everything will work. There is really not much question that
it is possible, and that Bruce will succeed at doing it.
But here’s the problem with all this: Bruce will get it to work
almost entirely because he is Bruce Simpson, with a lifetime of
skills and experimentally gained knowledge that make success in
such a venture extremely likely. That’s the kind of success an
independent terrorist would want, but in the case of a pulsejet
powered missile, it’s really not what they’re very likely to get.
Here’s why:
1. Just because you can design a pulsejet doesn’t mean you can
build it
2. Just because you can design an airframe doesn’t mean you
can build it and get it flyable
3. Just because you’ve built the engine doesn’t mean you can
run it
4. Just because you can get it running doesn’t mean it will
perform well enough to deliver the payload
5. Just because you can get it running right doesn’t mean you
can launch it
6. Just because you can launch it doesn’t mean you can pilot it
7. Just because you can pilot it doesn’t mean a robotic system
can pilot it to the intended target point
I’ll try to substantiate all these claims in Part II.
FEELING THE EFFECTS
The real danger here is not that professional terrorists will
suddenly enlarge their vision to include cheap pulsejet-powered
missiles -- they have access to much better technology than this
-- but rather, that any malcontent with a grudge against someone
[usually 'The Government' or some offending people group] and
some money to spend now can imagine he has a place to go to get
the ‘recipe’ for something he never could have considered before.
Bruce claims that he will never reveal quite as much technical
data as would be needed for someone to actually accomplish the
terrorist’s goal, and I believe his intentions are good -- but
this is making a big assumption about the inability of someone
else to ‘fill in the blanks’ in the pattern of something that’s
being described in a relatively high degree of detail.
I have already received credible reports of pulsejet hobbyists
being treated as persona non grata when they shop at the local
hardware store for a small spark plug or some scraps of sheet
metal, just because they mention they are working on their own
pulsejets. In view of Bruce’s newfound credibility with the
general public, I guess this is understandable, but this kind of
‘censorship’ is NOT productive in terms of dealing with the
perceived threat, and it is NOT necessary. The real threat CAN be
understood and dealt with. I’ll cover the real nature of this
threat in Part III. And finally, in Part IV, I’ll talk about what
we in the pulsejet community can do to educate the public and
prove ourselves responsible citizens in the continuing enjoyment
of our unusual hobby.
Bruce Simpson’s ‘Construction Diary’ page can be found at:
www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/diary.shtml
-- End of Part I –-
_____________________________________________________
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![Larry Cottrill with Reynstodyne Shark[TM] engine prototype - Photo Copyright 2003 Cottrill Cyclodyne Corporation](http://www.cottrillcyclodyne.com/08Mar2003/LBC&Shark_3_crop1_small.jpg) |
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Photo Copyright 2003 Cottrill Cyclodyne Corp. |
Larry Cottrill is Editor of jetZILLA online magazine and
Director of Product Development and CEO of
Cottrill Cyclodyne Corporation of Mingo, Iowa, USA -
striving to create the world's smallest, safest and most
practical hobby jet engines.
You may contact me concerning this article at:
mailto:comments@jetzilla.com
This article first appeared in jetZILLA ezine, Special Edition,
June 13, 2003. Permission is hereby granted by the author and
publisher to freely distribute this article, so long as you
agree to use the article in its entirety, without alterations
or additions, including this resource box.
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