Those attending Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture air show held July 29-August 4 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, got a look at a pulsed detonation engine. The engine is often tied to classified aircraft, particular the mysterious Aurora Project.

The engine was on review at the air show, displayed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. On hand to explain the pulsed-detonation engine being shown was its creator, AFRL's Fred Shauer.

The engine on display -- built from mostly off-the-shelf automotive parts -- was touted as a test bed for future engines that will be capable of powering aircraft to speeds of up to Mach 4. In its final form, this type of detonation engine could make aircraft faster, lighter and more maneuverable.

A pulsed-detonation engine creates propulsion by using a string of controlled explosions of fuel and air in detonation tubes that look like long exhaust pipes. Shauer and his team have developed a method to burn the fuel and air in a way that increases the intensity of the explosions, providing increased thrust that could power future aircraft to speeds of up to Mach 4, or four times the speed of sound.

-- Leonard David