Power Heritage Trust
On 28th August 1957, Napier’s Chief Test Pilot, Mike Randrup, flying English Electric Canberra WK163 fitted with a Napier 'Double Scorpion' aircraft rocket engine, reached an altitude of 70,310', beating the previous record, also held by a Canberra, by more than 4,000'. Randrup was accompanied by Walter Shirley, Deputy Chief Engineer of Napier’s Flight [...]
When the Hawker Typhoon aircraft was being developed Sidney Camm and his team had to find a way to efficiently cool the Napier Sabre engine. Overheating had plagued the Sabre throughout the engine's development until the engine design 'challenges', so very public in a time of war, were solved. With a dry weight over [...]
In 1934 the Martin-Baker Company designed a small cheap two-seater mono wing aircraft which exploited a simple highly ingenious method of construction. It used round section thin gauge steel tubing throughout the structure and was skinned with aluminium. It became the MB1 and was powered by a neatly cowled Napier E97 Javelin inverted 6-cylinder [...]
This is an edited article originally from ‘This is Napier’ No.5 1959 During 1957 the Compania Shell de Venezuela took delivery of three high-speed passenger launches for service on Lake Maracaibo between land bases and oil rigs up to 40 miles offshore. The launches, designed and built by John I. Thornycroft & Co. Ltd of Woolston, [...]
Both the Hawker Tempest and Typhoon aircraft featured an instantly identifiable and large 'chin' radiator. This was because the aircraft required sufficient airflow to cool the large and powerful Napier Sabre engine. However the "cooling drag" created by the chin radiator has been claimed to comprise 13% of the total drag in the Hawker [...]
After the WW II Normandy landings on the 6th June 1944, temporary landing strips were constructed close to the beaches from which Hawker Typhoon aircraft could operate. Flying from these temporary strips the Tiffies were able to provide fast and close air support to the advancing allied troops. Unfortunately however, [...]