Air Force Finds New Need For Low-Cost Engine Tech Used On Nazi Buzz Bombs
A startup is reviving the powerplant used in the V-1 flying bomb for use in an air-launched decoy, and possibly more.
By Thomas Newdick June 24, 2021
The War Zone
The U.S. Air Force is looking at the potential of pulsejet technology as part of broader efforts to provide reliable, low-cost powerplants for future drones and missiles. The service is kicking off its new foray into pulsejets by funding the development of a new air-launched decoy drone. While a decoy is the immediate focus, there is also scope for the decoy, and its propulsion system, to have other potential applications, too.
The Air Force Armament Directorate recently awarded the Wave Engine Corporation startup a $1-million contract to develop and then demonstrate the pulsejet decoy, known as the Versatile Air-Launched Platform (VALP). The award followed what the company describes as a “highly competitive process with hundreds of applicants” as the Air Force seeks to fund promising new technologies for possible use in future capabilities.
Wave Engine Corp.
A Schreder glider was first tested with Wave Engine Corporation’s new pulsejet engine last year.
Concept artwork supplied by the company shows a pair of VALPs being launched as decoys from an F-16 fighter jet, as seen at the top of this story. While hard to judge the scale of the decoy from the image, it clearly has a narrow but unusually deep forward fuselage containing the pulsejet, low-mounted swept wings, and a slender rear body possibly carrying a V-shaped tail unit.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41263/air-force-finds-new-need-for-low-cost-engine-tech-used-on-nazi-buzz-bombs
