Engine identification - potential aircraft type?

[michael barnette]

Can anyone ID this engine and offer any guesses to aircraft type it used to belong to?
This is in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 40-50 miles offshore Tampa Bay, Florida.
Thanks,
Mike

Attachments

[Joe Scheil]

Neat picture, and based on the look, without any size reference, I believe it to be a Snark. Back then that area was jokingly referred to as unsafe for swimming due to “Snark infested waters...”. The picture jibes with the engine and scoop of the SM-62. It’s an aircraft. Just not a very good one....

[michael barnette]

Thanks for providing a potential suspect!
Here is another view that shows the (suspected) ventral surface of the engine assembly...looks a bit different than the Snark?

Attachments

[airnutz]

No survey notes as to the scale of this thing? The squarishness of the scoop and the tight conformity of the superstructure around the engine doesn't really suggest Snark...or Regulus II for that matter. Things that make you go hmmmmm...

[martin_sam_2000]

could it be the rear fuselage of a humped back Mig-21 with part of the engine still inside?

Sean

[Joe Scheil]

Don’t think so... I think this is target drone. If it’s small, perhaps a BQM-74 Chukar....? But I still think it looks like it has the potential to be Snark parts!

[martin_sam_2000]

Don’t think so... I think this is target drone. If it’s small, perhaps a BQM-74 Chukar....? But I still think it looks like it has the potential to be Snark parts!

I don't know, the Chukar used a centrifugal compressor and this looks like a straight turbo jet. I brought up the Mig-21 cause that does not look like an intake, it is full of "stuff", and there is a wire hanging out.

VERY interested to see what it turns out to be!!

Sean

[JohnB]

Don’t think so... I think this is target drone. If it’s small, perhaps a BQM-74 Chukar....?

That was my thought, some sort of target drone....Beech, Ryan, whatever.
Especially considering the location.

[airnutz]

Don’t think so... I think this is target drone. If it’s small, perhaps a BQM-74 Chukar....? But I still think it looks like it has the potential to be Snark parts!

I don't know, the Chukar used a centrifugal compressor and this looks like a straight turbo jet. I brought up the Mig-21 cause that does not look like an intake, it is full of "stuff", and there is a wire hanging out.

VERY interested to see what it turns out to be!!

Sean

BQM-74 is looking likely...or something very similar. At the bottom of the BQM-74 Wikipedia page there is a cutaway sketch that contains several of the features if we're looking at the power section with both ends shorn off. The "scoop" aft of the intake for the engine becomes an accessory section and fairing.

[michael barnette]

I think the BQM intake shape looks pretty close. Here is another image...note the fish. I think the relative size makes sense too...this doesn’t look big enough to come off a “proper” aircraft...

Attachments