Flying a radio controlled model jet is not an easy task. Experience is always recommended before flying jets as they go at very high speeds. Before you get into fly model jets, you should first acquire experience with propeller planes. If you’re a beginner you may want to go straight into high powered jets, but you will almost certainly crash and burn on your first flight, especially if you don’t have an instructor. Beginners should use a slower propeller plane with a cheaper  model jet engine while they master the basics of flying.

Ducted Engines:
Some of the early pioneers of the jet engine model were the brands Turbax, Kress, Scozzi, among others. Most early jet style model airplanes used a high pitched and multi bladed fan inside the ductwork, usually in the fuselage of the plane. A 2 stroke piston engine was the one of the most popular engines that powered the fans. The fans had to be made quite sturdy and designed to operate at a high RPM (Rotation Per Minute). The early jet model pioneer brands generally used .40 to .90 cubic inch displacement engines, but some of the brands made models for engines that were as small as .049 (1/2cc). It’s uncommon to still find a glow engine or ducted fan aircraft as most manufactures don’t use that design anymore. But the basic ‘fan in tube’ design is now very popular in use amongst modern electric powered jet aircrafts.

Turbine Engines:
When one thinks of turbine engines usually those massive things on jumbo jets come to mind, but small jet turbine engines are also used for many hobbyist model jets, as well as other surface and air model crafts. Most model sized turbine engines are just simplified versions of the big turbo engines that you see on commercial planes, but there are new designs as well. Many revolutionary designs have been made with the model sized jet engine, but haven’t been utilized by commercial sized aircraft due to both the high cost of manufacturing and the time for fail safe testing. In 1980 the first private turbine was flown by Gerald Jackman in England, but only recently has commercial production for jet turbine engines been made easily available for purchasing. Having a jet turbine engine can be very costly for the most model hobbyists as they require precision manufacturing and specialized design techniques, not to mention the expensive fuel that they require to run.

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