Napier Nomad - History - Encyclopedia II

In 1945 the Air Ministry asked for proposals for a new 6,000 horsepower (4,500 kW) class engine with good economy. Curtiss-Wright was designing an engine of this sort of power known as the "turbo-compound", but Sir Harry Ricardo, one of Britain's great engine designers, suggested that the most economical combination would be a similar design using a diesel two-stroke in place of the Curtiss's gasoline engine.

Prior to World War II Napier had licensed the Junkers Jumo 204 Diesel design to set up production in the UK as the Napier Culverin, however the start of the war made the Sabre all-important and work on the Culverin was stopped. In response to the Air Ministry requirements they dusted off this work, combining two enlarged Culverins into an H-block similar to the Sabre, resulting in a massive 75 litre design. Markets for an engine of this size seem limited however, and instead they returned to the original Culverin-like horizontally opposed 12 cylinder design, resulting in the Nomad.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page