Madagascar Institute's jet-powered merry-go-round

All aboard the Madagascar Institute's jet-powered merry-go-round! (Thanks, Benjamin!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Fang Xianfu

#14: It’s similar the starter motor on your car. The engine won’t ignite unless it’s already spinning, so compressed air is used to set it off. I guess a leaf blower is a handy source of quite high-speed, directable air? More on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huffer

This is reckless, dangerous, possibly suicidal, hilarious, brilliant, wonderful, and a host of other adjectives. I love it.
ackpht

In my mother’s imagination, this is every carnival ride ever made.
cstatman

SRL has some sweet pulse jet action
http://www.srl.org/yard/pulse/

i built model aeroplane driven by a jet, but nowadays, its probably insanely illegal and a fire hazard.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/04/18/power-it-with-a-pulse-jet/

the new zeland jet cart? cool
http://www.aardvark.co.nz/pjet/lhkart.shtml

the merry go round? SUPER cool
Anonymous

Dr. Darwin will see you now.
Anonymous

win.
Anonymous

if only it were monkey navigated!
Anonymous

Their helmets are the best part.
hackwater

“It’s just crazy enough to work!” And it did. Thanks, Mark.
Anonymous

You know, I’d rather die experimenting with a jet-powered merry-go-round than to go out in some senseless tragedy.

But that’s just me.
VICTOR JIMENEZ

ThatÂ´s so awesome that I can barely say one word: WIN!
Anonymous

looks like something straight out of garry’s mod
efergus3

NASA plans to duplicate this for only $2.5 million as another possible shuttle replacement.
Anonymous

Hahahaa … looks like they have a regular car brake setup at the top to slow it down?
danlalan

NASA plans to duplicate this for only $2.5 million as another possible shuttle replacement.

Now THATS funny!
Anonymous

That was dissapointingly short on violent acceleration.
Chocolatey Shatner

Was I the only one hearing the strains of Still Alive: “This was a triumph…. We do what we must because we can…”?
WaylonWillie

fantastic! for version 2.0 i would like to see flames coming out of both of the horsies.
Anonymous

I have one in my back yard.
Ingmar

Geeks will be geeks, I guess… Very cool.
The Unusual Suspect

Some people have more pulse jets than they know what to do with.
Gilbert Wham

Powered by equal parts awesome & crazy. I’m going back to do a belated degree next year – I think I’m gonna go hang out in the engineering dept & cause trouble…
neurolux

Not nearly as fast as I was expecting, fortunately for them.
Anonymous

That’s not jet powered, it’s propeller powered. 3 times less cool.
phisrow

So, the merry-go-round goes merrily round until President Madagascar gives the order to “SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING”…
El Mariachi

A few years ago the dreadlocked guy operating the ride from the middle blew his own face off building a confetti cannon. A couple years before that he ripped it apart removing a suspension spring without a spring compressor. So the sign at the beginning of the clip is not to be taken lightly…

That aside, cool ride!
zoejoho

omg.. that thing is INSANE!! haha ya see something new every day!
Anonymous

Good lord. I’d be a puke sprinkler about 10 seconds into that.
kobrakai

So they can build that thing but not a tripod for the camera?
kenahoo

Question though: why is the thing ignited by a leaf blower?
VagabondAstronomer

I just love pulse jets… too cool. And loud. Real loud.
But, boy, does this remind me of the Golightly Steam Rocket… just tethered…
http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/2008/06/golightly-steam-rocket.html
PapayaSF

The jets are valveless pulsejets, which work like the old V-1 buzzbombs but without moving parts. The combustion chamber is the thicker part of the tube. All pulsejets (AFAIK) require airflow to get started. (V-1s were launched from catapults or dropped from airplanes because they couldn’t launch under their own power.)
nck wntrhltr

“You must be at least this deaf to ride the carousel. If not, you will certainly be so afterwards.”
Cochituate

ah, to be 11 years old again, like these guys.

Really like the safety equipment used for this. I would have at least used bicycle helmets to give the illusion of safety. It would make their mothers feel a tiny bit better, when the flame from the first unit sets the rider on the second unit on fire.
BillGlover

That is a thing of demented beauty.
Anonymous

Judging from the angles they pulled about 3 Gs. Not a ride for sissies!
Anonymous

You can get the same effect by eating a couple of bean burritos before getting on the ride.
dculberson

Anon11, not propeller powered. Where do you see the propellers?
dculberson

“removing a suspension spring without a spring compressor.”

Ouch. I bet the $40 that a spring compressor costs looks really, really cheap to him now.
Anonymous

AWWWww, it didn’t FAIL.
that’s not nearly as entertaining.