A Turbo-Compound-Prop Engine? - The INSANE Napier Nomad
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- In the aftermath of World War II, the race for engineering innovation intensified, and the need for efficient and powerful engines became paramount. Designers knew that should another conflict break out in the coming years, now more than ever, the country with superior technology would likely prevail. Napier, a British engineering firm with a storied history in aircraft engine design, was determined to lead the charge. What followed was the remarkable journey of the E125 Nomad I, a testament to the relentless pursuit of progress and ingenuity that characterized the post-war era. Drawing on Harry Ricardo's pioneering vision and Napier's vast experience, the E125 Nomad I represents a groundbreaking moment in the development of aircraft engines.
#aviationhistory #aviation #engineering #wwii
Napiers were renowned for producing "interesting" engines. Just look at the Napier Deltic triangular diesel uniflow engine with a crankshaft at each corner of the triangle, 6 cylinders per bank, 18 in total and 36 pistons. These engines powered 22 locomotives on British Rail for many years. There are a couple now preserved. Once heard, never forgotten !
There are six preserved, with two main line registered (they can run on the UK's main network) Here is a link to five in a convoy, and a second link for the awesome sound at night at max speed.
ruclips.net/video/Avy6KKRFhl4/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/4UM6yPQ0zmU/видео.html
They were also used in the "Nasty"class PTF of the US Navy in the late 60's and ear;y 70's. Google PTF Nasty for some interesting reading about their use in Viet Nam.
The Napier Deltic was originally designed to fulfil a Royal Navy requirement for a powerful, non magnetic and lightweight diesel engine for a new class of minesweeper., the " Ton" class. The engine also powered the "Dark" class MTB/MGB designed and built in the 1950's. English Electric who had acquired the manufacturing rights used the engine in the Deltic class of diesel locomotives during British Railways' mad rush to replace steam power.
5000+rpm if i recall right
@@DaVe-iSnOtHoMe.MaN.LemmingsWeB 2100 RPM 3100 HP for the nasty Napier. 1800 RPM normal fast cruise, 2100 max RPM.
Despite it being somewhat of a dead end this ingenious piece of engineering should be remembered so thanks for featuring it. Keep up the good work.
Try looking up the Napier Deltic. An 18 cylinder 36 piston two stroke Diesel that was far more successful. Fry your brain at trying to guess which cylinder will fire next in the animation on Wikipedia.
@@COIcultist yeah, i was gonna' mention the Deltec....quite a lot of engineering and machining, considering these were back in the 'slide-rule' days...The Deltech was used in train engines, and maybe boats?
Wikipedia animation, I've got to check that out...I've read about the Deltec and seen a couple videos (from old movies) of it in locomotives.
@@dougankrum3328 Used in several classes of boats, that is what the engines were originally developed for. Fast patrol boats and later minesweepers and minehunters for the Royal Navy. The Norwegians developed a very successful fast attack boat that was used/copied by the West Germans and the Americans. The Deltic was originally developed in the 18 cylinder form, but there was a half Deltic, 9 cylinder version. This was used in locomotives and the Hunt Class minehunter. There was even development work to use a Deltic as the gas generator in a Nomad variation.
Catch also the 3 cylinder 6 piston TS3 used in the Commer "Knocker" truck.
Are u not familiar with government motors getting more laundered welfare 400 million of which they gave a fraction to navistar to copy hugo junkers but with single crank.
Ecomotors em 100 engine. Which is the most efficient effective lightest of harnessing thermal expansion with reciprocating assembly then government motors sold it and all rights to zhong ding holding corporation of China for 360million and pocketed the cash
@@dougankrum3328 The New York Fire Department also had one fitted into one of its Mobile Pumps, it was called " Thumper " it was used to produce enough Water pressure to be used on Sky scrapper fires.
Jaw dropping complexity. These engines were a perfect example of unlimited ingenuity combined with a strong will. Amazing. Great video!
Unfortunately Britain will never do something like this again
@@joshuakuehn Yep. All this country does now is move money around, be a haven and investment pot for oligarchs and tax exiles, while the rest work low-paid, low-security, service sector jobs.
Lets mount that 2 stroke turbo in the 2024 Polaris Khaos boost sled!
They were approaching the absolute limits of reciprocating engine and propeller technology.
The Napier Nomad mounted on the 2024 Arctic cat catylist snowmobile.
That must have sounded good! I'm a turbodiesel kinda guy with a love for old british iron and aero engines, so this one hits the spot!
Like a large displacement passenger car diesel with a massive turbo.
@@warmstrong5612 five or six compound turbos more like!
its not turbo diesel its turbo compound because turbine does not feed the engine but it directly rotate propeller. lots of year later volvo tried the same with trucks but failed again - turbine part was not reliable enough. also this was not only turbo compound aircraft engine that existed and failed.
Perkins Diesel
never ceases to amaze me how compact Napier engines are
Wow! What a marvel of engineering. All done by skilled tradesmen without computers and the like. Just genuine talent and attention to detail.
Amazing.
I can't get enough of these engine history vids. I love it when Paul from Curious Droid does them too. The crazy engines that were developed between the start of WWI and end of WWII were something. Like that crazy Chrysler tank engine where they bolted a gaggle of straight 6 engines together.
This is an amazing engine. Thank you for posting it. About 40 years ago I found the book: " The Power To Fly" by LJK Setright and I instantly became a Napier fanatic as was mr. Setright himself. I think I remember him writing about injecting fuel in the exhaust, because there still was O2 left, so to create an afterburner with 100 lbs of trust.
Lenny Setright was one of my all time favourite automotive authors, I also had the complete set of "the car" weekly publication that built over several years to about twelve volumes which Lenny was a major contributor to, all meticulously bound......sadly in the late 70's I loaned them to a "friend" and never saw him or my books again.
Likewise. A great mind, Mr Setright
A proper legend in the automotive world
@@usernamesreprise4068 Been there, have the empty shelf space from loans which suddenly turn into gifts without me knowing.
Yes, he was eloquent and very entertaining but do not believe all his writings. The maximum horsepower rating of the Sabre was obviously way off the mark. I have seen a photo of an original Napier document that lists the power of the various marks of Sabre, the bottom line has a handwritten correction, with a three replacing what looks very much like a typed five in the thousands position. This may have been the source of his outrageous 5500hp claim. Frankly, he should have known better.
It always amazes me how they designed such complex systems all those years ago.
Everyone had a clear mind back then and not caugt up in all this computer shit like we do today! we are not even ourselves anymore.
6:49 Oh my god, that may be the first engineering detail drawing in history to induce madness in any mechanic who sets their virgin eyes upon it. That image is at once a testament to a astounding level of functional engineering, and the epitaph for this sort of engineering philosophy. This is the kind of product where the manager in charge should have said “Alright guys, we’ve gone FAR afield of the goal…” A mechanic that would be able to work on something like this would be making hundreds of $$$ an hour.
Mechanics that worked on the Wright R-3350's that had this system (Power Recovery Turbine) called them "Parts Recovery Turbines" but the Pratt & Whitney R-4360's with their 56 spark plugs per engine was also a maintenance nightmare
@@TheSDB13 “parts recovery turbines” does seem apt and likely because there is A LOT of faith in hoping all those parts stay where they’re fastened.
My introduction to Napier's powerplants was the Double Scorpion liquid rocket engine. Quite a piece of engineering itself!
Dropping some major love for this channel, the engines of the 1900's aren't documented enough in video format.
UK. Thank you for such detailed data about the engines. Having many years ago worked on Centurion and Conqueror engines, which were basically derated Merlins. They were not the easiest engines to strip, so Gawd knows how they managed with some of those engines.
It's a pretty amazing design when I had to look at that as an engineer, pause for a bit, then go "Ah!"
Modern ICEs in cars and such these days honestly look like a cakewalk in comparison.
'Dared to dream big' - that's Napier all right. Thanks for posting this.
I knew about the augmented turbocharger but it only now sinks in that on the Mark 1, one prop was turbine driven. Only the English could come up with something so elaborate, but at least they did it out of necessity where the Germans did it out of tradition. Thank you for a very cogent and accessible look at this engine!
Napier made a bunch of really cool engines! Thanks for the video.
This video was put together so well i can't believe it. Amazing job
I'm really curious about what the engine sounds like. Will it be the sound of a diesel engine or the sound of a jet engine? what a awesome engine!
Yes, been waiting for this one !
Fantastic. Thank you for making this.
Great stuff, thank you for covering this fascinating engine.
Just the appearance of this engine is a thing to behold. Reminds me of something out of Jets ‘n’ Guns.
Lets it run todays with the syntheic amsoil interceptor 2 stroke oil. im sure there is a2 stroke VRO pump system on there.
Incredible and complex engine. It looks beautiful as well.
Simple and simplicity were words I'm sure were never in Napier's vocabulary. Fantastic engines and fantastic company.
Those Flight cut-a-drawings to me have always set the standard imo.
Chantilly pronounced Shantilly and Hazy in the name is actually pronounced Haazy. Hopefully that makes sense. The Udvar Hazy museum is only about a twenty minute drive from where I live and is an absolutely awesome museum. A must see! I’ve stared at this engine on previous visits and I could probably stare at it for hours if my wife let me. Gorgeous gorgeous piece of engineering. Awesome video! Please keep the engine focused videos coming!
What an absolute beast of engineering!
All I can say from my experience with internal combustion engines and engineering of 2 stroke gasoline technology with making some personal experimental engine designs myself, is nothing short of Wow! Fukin WOW!🤔🤯🤯🤯 Something like this is exactly what you stated here towards the ending "Dare to dream big" That in fact somehow, something so substantially outside the box of what ordinary was, especially back then??? SMFH! This one takes all cakes, and eats them all too! Incorporating a 2 stroke diesel utilizing Loop Scavenge and the fact they've gone beyond the "Turbo/Supercharger" or ordinary of the day and jumped right into the next level of jet engine technology as their answer to wasted exhaust energy....AkA BTUs and pressure to drive a compressor wheel to power a small turbojet engine as the exhaust system for additional thrust, all while using the compressor stage of the jet as a turbocharger for the ported and then timed ported engine as boost to the compression ratio and assistance of scavenging, which is a necessity for any potential power development within a 2 stroke diesel design. This one has blown away my mind brother! Leave it to the British and evidently a blank check to go with it! And we'll be amazed by what they are able to develop! Did I say Wow? Lol! Holy Sh1t! That's Absolutely Awesome stuff! Thank you for bringing this up to us here and sharing this wonderful feat of engineering with the world, that would otherwise have been long lost to time! 😉
That's incredible and a very innovated use of a hybrid engine design. I really wished manufactures focused more on reciprocating diesel engines for aviation back in the 40s and 50s.
I have an unhealthy obsession with Napier. Their designs were so flippin wild.
Brilliant ideas, brilliant engine. Even beautiful to look at. And yet - so rarely spoken about.
Thank you for your work. Never knew the family was this talented.
Two in one day! Very happy
Great video - this engine always fascinated me when I went to Udvar hazy center which is only ~25 min away.
It was a follow on of the motorjet. I am suprised it got so far as all R&D was focused on turbojets and turboprops.
The motorjet may have been feasible by using _ready made, cheap,_ air cooled engines. The engine that comes to mind is the Czech Tatra aircooled, aluminium, V8 engine of the 1930s, which was made in various forms until the early 2000s. It was way ahead of all other V8s from the 1930s, probably into the 1960s. Put one of these at the front of a tube turning a turbine behind it, then a cheap motorjet engine may have resulted. All the heat and exhaust goes one way - backwards.
Eastman Jacobs in the USA was impressed by the Caproni-Campini motorjet in Italy that he pursued a similar layout that became known as the NACA-Langley-Jacobs-Jeep, or Jake's Jeep. He continued R&D up to 1943 when the US forces, after being drawn into British turbojet developments, decided to focus on turbojets. When the funds ended, the R&D ended. Jake's Jeep got to a mock up stage.
What an engine! What a piece of engineering, 70 or so years ago!
Aircraft engines stories are some of my favorite
If a design could be made more complicated, the Napier engineers were up to the task! (Check out the design of the Napier Deltic for verification!)
I believe that the Nomad II used a Beier transmission to link the turbine to the crankshaft. It's a mechanical CVT, not a fluid coupling. The drawing you have is consistent with the descriptions of a Beier transmission and not with a fluid coupling.
The source material used the description I gave and said (Beier) in parenthesis afterward.
@@flightdojo let’s not pass the buck, chuck.
Yeh, that is correct.
It is both a fluid coupling and a CVT, depending on your definitions it may be neither. The CVT function occurs as the slightly tapered discs move in and out from one another, the effective diameters where they transmit power changes, thus giving variable ratios. Now to the fluid coupling, all the power is transmitted from one disc to the other by the "oil film in shear", there is no contact between the discs, further the discs are kept apart by the oil "wedge" (like plain bearings or Michell thrust bearings but different) which is why there is a big spring to push the discs together! So it is a fluid coupling, although perhaps not the type most people imagine Technically the Beier coupling only transmits part of the power between the turbine shaft and the crankshaft, it is not big enough to transmit all the power from one to the other but has a ratio range greater than necessary. In parallel with the Beier coupling is a geared transmission, the system is cleverly arranged to trade a reduction in variable ratio with total load capacity. The complete transfer path is more properly described as a Beier load-sharing coupling.
All of this and some other unusual technical features were described in great detail in contemporary issues of Flight magazine (such as the unusual arrangement of the conrods, they have no big-end bearing caps). Unfortunately, the Old Flight Archive is no longer available, a great loss!
An excellect presentation of a terrific engine. My only slight quibble is the conrods were not fork and blade but a unique arrangement where the opposing cylinders were consentric and each rod ran directly on the crank pin without conventional caps. Due to the masive boost pressures the rods were allways loaded onto the crank pin when the engine was firing. To allow the engine to be spun up without the rods detatching light straps were fited arround the opposing conrod ends. The allways loaded crank pins caused problems early on as the normal relaxing of pressure on the intake stroke promotes oil feeding into the bearing and prevents the oil fing breaking down. The problems were solved by grinding each pin in three distinct bands sightly eccentric to each other causing a relaxing of the bearing and stopping the oil film from breaking down. This is just one of the complex problems the engineering team overcame before the Ministry of Supply pulled the plug on what was the most efficient diesel engine ever seen.
Thank you for addressing the issue of Crank Pen design
The range Of the cargo aircraft Powered by this engine Was Suggested as 10000 miles
Boy, would I like to hear that kitten purr! What a lovely engine.
I’m staggered at the drawings alone!
This engineering always amazes me ..
Che spettacolo...sta napier ha fatto delle creature spettacolari...complimenti
Great video!
Awesome! Totally awesome!
This is one of the coolest engines ever and counter rotating props also extremely cool😎
Wow what an amazing engine thanks for the video
well done to ever hand-drawn that 6:45
I was very happy to see the Nomad II E.145 on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center recently.
It was in a car magazine my father subscribed to.
I was young and didn 't understand what engine it was.
Time passed.
I understand it now,
this engine is as creativel as Deltec.
Thank you for sharing (^^♪
One of the museums mentioned- the Udvar-Hazy in Northern Virginia- is quite good. I recommend it
I had heard about the astonishing cycle efficiency of this engine, but didn't realize how they achieved it. The idea of a combined turbine and two stroke diesel piston cycle has been rolling around in my mind since I learned about the Wright 3350 turbo compound as a kid- I'm not surprised that Napier and Recardo tried this. It is a brilliant solution for long-range aircraft, and it is sad stroke of bad timing that it was overshadowed by pure turbines. One has to guess that the turbine's low weight and simplicity was hard to beat with such a heavy, complex beast. Still... reheat fuel injection to the compressor turbine- check. Fluid coupling for compounding the excess turbine power- check. They thought of everything.
Your channel is awesome! Your way of presenting this type of material is very good.
Engine technology is a very interesting subject. Please branch out into other types of engines. For example, I would really like to see your presentation of the history and development of the two-stroke, Detroit Diesel, it's rise and fall, the company's history, and as well, other iconic "Over the Road" engines. Thanks for a great channel. Regards.
There are some clever ideas in this engine that one could apply to cars.
A work of art..
Beautiful engine !!
That was interesting. The schematics helped a lot
Petrol annihilation machine with occasional horsepower output. No, seriously, first: Awesome video, had to rewind several times just to get a grip on the details, loving it! Harry Ricardo was a genius in his own right, I know I know, sleeve valves etc wasn't the way ultimately, but his solutions for the requests were nothing short but ingenious! I'd love to see him today, with the possibilities of newer materials and production methods. We need more from his kind, engineers who don't just wanna please and make money, instead thinking outside the box and follow their individual ways. That'd be real progress, hail to the entropy, baby!
Wright also produced ( i.e. production engines: not just experimental) turbo compound versions of their R-3350.
6:50 whoever did this drawing I salute you
Insane!
Beautiful. 🫡👍🏻
Another video! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Beautiful engine
@3:40 - The cone shaped axial flow compressor looks like backwards mounted to me.
Very interesting.
Reminds me of modern F1 hybrid stuff, with the turbo generator thing. Very cool 👍
Basically same principle, just applied slightly different
The Nomad also reminds us that sometimes the most educational & informative things, come from the projects that didn't work or didn't go ahead. Like Dojo, I would say the Nomad was not a failure, it was a lesson and an important learning tool. The Yakolev M501 is another example of this, as of course is the Wasp Major.
Also made by Napier, in about the same time, was the 3 crankshaft 2 stroke Diesel Deltic, which ended up powering small ships and Diesel locomotives. That thing is an awe-inspiring piece of engineering!
Another example might be the H-16 engine British Racing Machines tried to make, for Formula One. It was the age of Fangio & Moss, Jim Clark, and that H-16 was a bridge too far in terms of complexity...
I loved British engines starting with my 1968 Triumph Bonneville.
That's some serious engineering, holy (two-)strokes.
That the Wright R-3350 turbo compound worked suggests that the energy recovery via the turbo was feasible. But Napier seemed to have an obsession with complexity for its own sake.
I would love to see a video about the Kuznetsov NK-12.
I clicked on this because I thought the thumbnail was a spaceship from Warhammer 40k.
I watched the whole thing because it was interesting. Good job.
The Turbo compounded Allison V12-1710 was also extraordinary.......the 1500hp V12 gained a staggering 1000hp from its attached turbo compound......and that was with 1940's turbine designs.
Honestly everytime I see a Napier engine design I wonder if they would have fared better in Germany than in the UK
The Napier Deltic was another innovative engine with three crankshafts and opposed piston cylinders. Imagine that, with a gas turbine.
They tried it, but got connecting rod failures once they crested 5000 hp (just watched the deltic vid earlier, lol)
The turbine should not stress the con rods. Maybe they had oil feed problems. Similar issues afflicted early Merlins.
I've always wanted to hear one running. The axial flow compressor is mesmerizing and seems odd that no one's tried to bring it back for piston aero engines, due to the limited benefits it would have at sea level for the automotive industry. I know the Leclerc tank's engine uses one, and there's also a truck engine that was developed with one but can't remember by who.
IIRC, if you're going to go turbo-compound, you might as well save on the complexity and go full gas turbine. There's a narrow range where going turbo-compound makes sense, which results in their rare appearances in production vehicles/aircraft nowadays.
volvo i think...
@@Appletank8 well... they failed because turbine did not like vibration that it got from piston engine and thus turbine break down very often. if instead you drive lets say electric motor with such turbine and use electricity for something else... maybe that would increase efficiency and longevity of such system.
@@Appletank8 They're beginning to be a bit more common in semi trucks with the largest Detroit diesel engines offered now being turbo-compound.
You actually can see the concept in current F1 car, and they will abandon it as it just too complicated, and no use for road cars (and AMG ONE is exception more than rule)
Always amazing videos cant wait to see more
I'm really impressed how complicated those engines can be. Despite being a wonderful feat of engineering the downfall of those engines was it's complication and it was much cheaper and easier to produce the jet engines..
Or alternatively 4 valve per cylinder internal combustion engines, where we haven't really moved too far from the fundamentals of WW2 aero engine design in the last 70 years as a way to make powerful, lightweight, non-too complex and cheap mass produced engines for vehicles.
@@Pesmog you are right 👍👍
@@Pesmog Since the four-valve twin overhead cam design was penned in 1910, there have been many top end designs that looked close to the shape of a modern four-valve engine, one that looked really close was the Allison V12, however, Allison's engineers (or anyone else's engineers at that time) clearly did not understand the combustion process properly so did not get the performance of a modern four-valve design. Many of the designers had a handle on tumble and swirl but missed the boat on squish, the piston-to-head distance at the outer part of the piston was not close enough to give the all-important squish 9a very simplified and probably partly wrong description).
It is remarkable, how many designs came close to the ideal, but a lack of fundamental understanding prevented success. The Nomads' design was based on a fundamental analysis of heat flows, Chatterton wrote a paper and gave a very good lecture on the design issues. The reason for the Nomad's existence was the inability to run gas turbines at a high enough temperature to get good efficiency, the two-stroke diesel being the gas producer for the turbine partially overcame this issue, of course, it was more complex than that.
Maybe,but they didn’t have anything like the range (low fuel consumption, not power was the goal)
@TheHarryMann actually immediately after the war they stopped producing those marvellous engines or similar and almost immediately started producing the jet engines that was far cheaper to produce. Only the Shackleton and similar was produced for maritime patrols...
Harry Ricardo is one of the most important engine development experts of the last century. These Nomad engines represented the peak of piston aircraft engine development, tuning for both power and efficiency. Using two-cycle diesels with Ricardo's combustion chamber technology, exhaust turbines, and newly available alloys to reduce weight, these were probably the most efficient aircraft engines ever designed. The problem was the jet age... Jets and turboprops are not nearly as fuel efficient, but they are much simpler systems with fewer moving parts and have much longer service lives.
Seems like something that with slight modifications could have been applied to rail, and simis, or shipping.
Diesel Aero Engine ? ! COUNT ME IN ! 👍
There's one of these engines on display at East Fortune aerodrome near Edinburgh. I think the label says that it weighs a ton and a half!
Thank you for putting this up..! Liked the way the 2 was a logical simplification of the 1...
Oh lawd... I thought the image in the thumbnail was a new Battlefleet Gothic vessel 🙏
May I suggest you should present engine displacement in litres as well as cubic inches. Hi from Australia.
It's almost as though Naiper had a motto. "Complexity is our Trademark."
The Nomad likely would have been successful without jet engines being available. But the Brits also had the Centarus while the US had various Wright and P&W radials. Plus there loads of surplus US transport aircraft flooding the market post WWll.
Good video, have you seen the sleeve valve 27 cylinder radial engine, insane............
It is a shame that we no longer hear of innovative ideas from Napier unlike Rolls Royce.
I worked on the Curtiss Wright R-3350 turbo compound piston engine in the SP-2H. The 18 cylinder, 3,350 cubic inch engine had a 2 speed super charger and three exhaust driven power recovery turbines, PRT. Insane? I didn't think so.
An ilustration of the principle that systems reach their peak complexity just as they are being superseded by something completely different.
this struggle of complex turbo-compound engines vs turboprop reminds me development and improvement of electro-magnetic, quartz synchronized, balance watch movements, and tuning fork quartz synchronized movements, complex to produce, complex to handle, assemble and adjust, and somehow beautiful blend of high-tech mechanics and latest electronic, which became obsolete due to development of much simpler, cheaper and suitable for mass production quartz movement with stepper motor, which used in watches to this day
What was the source material for the mechanical drawings?
There is one use case where it could be reignite this sort of engine: automotive specifically semi trailer racing.
St Mary's college London (Now University) had a Nomad on display in the engineering department.
According to sources quoted by LJK Setright in his book 'Some Unusual Engines' the Nomad was a pig to start.
Excelente !... pido editar en idioma español por favor, gracias.
Back when Britain had industry and clever people working in it.
I thought I was looking at some Warhammer insanity in the thumbnail, before I realized I am looking at an engine.