Wave Engine Corp. is a developer of pulsejet engines for UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), designed to provide the industry with reliable jet propulsion at previously unattainable economy and scale. UST is delighted to welcome Wave Engine on board as a supplier partner, and we will be highlighting their unique solutions and capabilities across our channels over the next 12 months.
We’ve just launched Wave Engine’s UST supplier profile, which has been written and built by our team in collaboration with the company. The Silver profile showcases their flight-proven drone propulsion systems, which are highly cost-effective and mass-producible with a thrust-specific fuel consumption that is competitive with turbine engines.
Read on to find out more:
Wave Engine’s technology utilizes pressure waves instead of rotating machinery, resulting in a much simpler and rapidly-producible design with no moving parts and extreme tolerance to debris ingestion and damage. These engines take advantage of the compressible nature of air to generate thrust for high-speed flight, and feature a unique combustion cycle:
- A fuel-air mixture is ignited in the combustion chamber.
- The temperature and pressure of the gasses increases.
- Hot combustion products are expelled from both ends of the tube, creating usable thrust.
- The inertia of the high-speed gas jets creates a partial vacuum inside the tube.
- Fresh air is sucked into the engine to fill this vacuum, more fuel is injected, and the cycle repeats.
This methodology results in numerous advantages for high-speed aircraft propulsion, including no blending requirements, fuel efficiency levels that are comparable to turbine engines, and a unique and proven mid-air starting and restarting capability. In addition to a wide range of commercially-available fuels, wave engines can also be run on biofuels such as bioethanol E85, making them ideal for decarbonization and sustainability initiatives.
The company’s launch product, the J-1 engine, is designed for high-speed UAVs with gross weights of up to 200 lbs. It is provided as a complete package with a fuel supply system and digital ECU (Engine Control Unit) with PWM inputs.
Delivering thrust levels of up to 53 lbf (236N), it is run on gasoline as standard with optional E85 bioethanol or Jet-A/JP-8 heavy fuel capabilities, and provides all the simplicity and operational advantages of Wave Engine’s innovative technology.
In addition to COTS products, Wave Engine also offers a comprehensive range of services to support your high-speed UAV propulsion requirements, including engine and fuel system development, laboratory and flight testing, and vehicle integration.
The company’s engineering team boasts decades of experience in aviation and propulsion technologies, and also maintains cutting-edge facilities with sophisticated in-house testing capabilities, including a wind tunnel and testbed aircraft.
To find out more about Wave Engine Corp. and their pulsejet engine technology for UAVs, please visit their profile page:
https://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/company/wave-engine-corporation/
