Go Propless
Outboard engine manufacturers show they can go with the flow

Do you think waterjet power only applies to PWCs or expensive inboard yachts? Think again, think outboard jets. Although Sir Isaac Newton provided us with a sound explanation for the way a jet engine works, he was a bit late in demonstrating it. That was done in the first century B.C., when the Greek scientist Hero of Alexandria built his “aeolipile” steam jet, which spun around rapidly, but was never used to propel a boat, or anything else for that matter.

Newton’s connection to jets appears in his Third Law of Motion: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Fill your kid’s toy rocket with water, leaving a small amount of space for the air you will pump into the chamber, and pull the release. Voila! The compressed air forces the water out of the nozzle. The mass of water being rapidly expelled from the chamber creates a reaction force that launches the rocket into the air. In a boat, water pumps create the reaction force. The principle is the same whether in a small PWC or a big ferry. ...

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