Pulse Ejector Thrust Augmentor

A Pulse Ejector Thrust Augmentor or PETA is a proprietary pulse jet engine developed by Boeing.^[1] The Boeing PETA design embeds the pulse jet inside a thrust augmenting duct which entrains surrounding air into the exhaust stream. This entrained air improves thrust and cools the pulse jet. Boeing may use the PETA in its Light Aerial Multi-purpose Vehicle (LAMV) Future Combat System.

Advantages

• A PETA engine would be advantageous in a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, with the ability to provide upward thrust and thus decouple vertical and axial movement of the aircraft.
• The designers claim PETA is insensitive to sand and small debris.
• The engine's thrust augmenters can be incorporated as load bearing structures in the aircraft's superstructure, thus reducing overall weight.
• The design features no moving parts, which the creators claim increases reliability compared to conventional engines with moving parts.
• Multiple engines can be assembled into an array, allowing scalability to heavy-lifting applications.
• Arranging the engines in an array allows for distributed, highly redundant thrust, thus increasing reliability.

References

External links

• Wired.com
• Google Patents US6883304