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In 1950 in London, engineers were testing a new kind of car. It had no pistons, cylinders, carburettor or crankshaft but it did have performance. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Seattle, a truck was cruising under the thrust of another kind of engine. The truck, as with the car, had the whiff of kerosene about it.
While the car in London was designed and built by the Rover Company of Solihull, the truck in Seattle likewise was powered by a gas turbine engine designed and built experimentally by the Boeing Aeroplane Company. Nothing came of Boeing’s effort, but with Rover’s endeavours it was a different story.The Rover gas turbine engine developed to become the power unit of several Leyland trucks, the first being the Leyland Comet.
The architect of this engine was Noel Penny, who died aged 87 on 17 May. Penny was managing director of Leyland Gas Turbines, (LGT), formed by Leyland boss Lord Stokes to design, develop and manufacture gas turbines for commercial vehicles. Not the least among LGT’s challenges was the use of an innovative Corning glass ceramic heat exchanger to extract heat from the exhaust and transpose it to the incoming air.
Penny and his team at LGT were pioneers. In the US, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors were wrestling with similar technical issues to bring gas turbine cars and trucks to fruition. By comparison, LGT was doing its work on a shoestring. That LGT achieved so much was attributable to the passion and commitment of Penny, who was not only a brilliant scientist and engineer but also a shrewd businessman.
The LGT engine was a much more powerful version of the engine fitted to the Rover-BRM that Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart drove in the 1965 Le Mans 24-hour race. Smaller versions powered Rover’s prototype cars in the 1950s and 1960s – the T3 and the T4. Perhaps the most famous Rover gas turbine car was JET 1, which in 1950 reached a top speed of 151mph (243kph) in Belgium.
Penny arrived at Rover in May 1952 from the Atomic Energy Authority, where he had worked as a scientist. He began as a technical assistant at Rover and eventually became chief engineer of the gas turbines department. He was then approached by Bertie Fogg, director of engineering at Leyland Corporation, who asked him to set up a company to design, develop and manufacture gas turbine engines for trucks.
Although engine development at LGT proved successful, several factors led to a change of course for Penny. Lord Stokes wanted LGT to move from Solihull to the company’s headquarters in Lancashire. Penny opposed the move, resigned in 1971 and set up his own business, Noel Penny Turbines (NPT), based in Coventry, in 1972.
Penny’s knowledge of gas turbine development brought him respect on both sides of the Atlantic. Both General Motors and Caterpillar Tractor wanted him on their payroll in the US, but he was not keen to move there. In the end, Caterpillar awarded NPT a research contract to design and develop a two-shaft, regenerative, 350bhp gas turbine engine for off-highway application. The engine would be fitted to an International Tri-Star truck for highway development.
At NPT, engineers and scientists collaborated enthusiastically to develop Caterpillar’s engines. However, Caterpillar decided not to put the engine into production. But Penny and his team focused on other applications, and devised a range of gas turbine engines that the company went on to manufacture for use in business jets.
Although the gas turbine has so far failed to find an automotive niche, Penny never lost enthusiasm for the power unit that he believed offered so much potential. It is, perhaps, ironic that Coventry remains the home of Bladon Jets, which is working with Jaguar Land Rover to introduce small gas turbine engines to passenger cars. Penny would be pleased if that work has a successful outcome.