Editing D. Napier & Son (section)

====English Electric====
Napier had been taken over by [[English Electric]] on 23 November 1942.<ref>Sharp, Dan: ''British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle'', Crécy, 2016, p.11.</ref>

Last of the great Napier internal combustion engines was the [[Napier Nomad|Nomad]], a complex "turbo-compound" design that combined a diesel engine with a [[turbine]] to recover energy otherwise lost in the exhaust. The advantage of this complex design was fuel economy: it had the best [[specific fuel consumption (shaft engine)|specific fuel consumption]] of any aircraft engine, even to this day. However, even better fuel economy could be had by flying a normal [[jet engine]] at much higher altitudes, while existing designs filled the "low end" of the market fairly well. First run in 1949, the Nomad I underwent radical redesign for the Nomad II but was largely ignored by the market and was cancelled in 1955.

Along with every major aero engine company in the post-war era, Napier turned to the jet turbine. Seeing a niche not yet adopted up by the larger vendors, Napier developed a number of [[turboshaft]] designs which saw some use, notably in [[helicopter]]s. Its first design, the [[Napier Naiad|Naiad]] and Double Naiad was developed for various Royal Navy [[Fleet Air Arm]] projects, but did not enter production. The smaller models developed later, the 3,000-hp-class [[Napier Eland|Eland]] and 1,500-hp-class [[Napier Gazelle|Gazelle]] did somewhat better, notably the Gazelle which powered several models of the popular [[Westland Wessex]] helicopter. Production ceased when a deal was struck with Rolls-Royce in 1961.

At the same time, the [[ramjet]] was showing promise for high-speed supersonic flight. From 1951 Napier developed a successful large-diameter experimental engine, the Napier Ram Jet (NRJ). Napier continued in ramjet development for several years, typically working alongside the English Electric aircraft design team.<ref>Sharp, Dan; ''British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle'', Crécy, 2016, pp. 18–19.</ref>