An early turbojet prototype. Sal Aiello (www.salvatoreaiello.com)
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Earlier today, I came upon the site of a man who is building his own jet-powered motorcycle. That’s right. He’s converting turbochargers into jet engines and building a motorcycle around them. But that’s not all; there are apparently a lot of these crazies out there. Here’s a look at some.

The main components in a turbojet are the compressor, the combustion chamber, and the exhaust turbine. Although the physical configuration is different, turbochargers provide two of those three parts; namely the compressor and the turbine. Adding a combustion chamber more or less completes the package. Some bold DIY adventurers, having realized this, have gone a bit wild.

Sal Aiello’s Jet Project website does a great job of describing how people are building DIY turbojet engines. It also shows his work in progress: The Jet Cycle. Have a look in the attached photo gallery and these videos for a sampling of some of the other DIY jet projects out there.

And, if you need a hilarious way to spend three more minutes, there’s always these Jet Trucks.

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The author is not entirely convinced that this will end well.

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Testing the Turbojet.

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Part of Sal’s combustion chamber, with the ignitor.

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R/C aircraft enthusiast Don Giandomenico’s beautiful Turbojet project. Visit his website for all of the details of this meticulous build.

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Turbojet go-kart, courtesy of www.turbojet.com. The turbojet itself is not a DIY build like the others in this gallery, but I couldn’t resist including this picture.

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An early turbojet prototype.
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