The Napier Eland was a British

turboshaft A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaftpower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the exhaust ...

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...

gas-turbine engine built by

Napier & Son D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engineering company best known for its luxury motor cars in the Edwardian era and for its aero engines throughout the early to mid-20th century. Napier was founded as a precision engineering company in 1 ...

in the early 1950s. Production of the Eland ceased in 1961 when the Napier company was taken over by

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

Design and development

The Eland was first tested in 1953 in a

Vickers Varsity The Vickers Varsity is a retired British twin-engined crew trainer operated by the Royal Air Force from 1951 to 1976. Design and development The Varsity was developed by Vickers and based on the Viking and Valetta to meet Air Ministry Spec ...

aircraft. Further flight proving was carried out from 1955 using the first production

Airspeed Ambassador The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador is a British twin piston-engined airliner that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd. It was one of the first postwar airliners to be produced. The Ambassador was developed in ...

2. The Eland was dropped from production when Napiers was acquired by

Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his cranes, they ...

in 1961. The Eland was used to power various aircraft including the

Westland Westminster The Westland Westminster was a British helicopter of the 1950s from Westland Aircraft. A large cargo design, it was powered by two turboshaft engines driving a single, five-bladed rotor. Initially unclad, the all-metal airframe was later enclose ...

heavy-lift helicopter, the

Canadair CL-66 The Canadair CL-66 was a turboprop version of the civilian Convair CV-440 Metropolitan. The CC-109 Cosmopolitan or "Cosmo" in RCAF service became the standard VIP aircraft as well as replacing the Douglas Dakota and the North American B-25 Mitc ...

; a turbine-powered version of the Convair CV-340 for the Canadian military(later converted to Allison T-56 propjets after a number of engine failures), and the

Fairey Rotodyne The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses.gyrodyne A gyrodyne is a type of VTOL aircraft with a helicopter rotor-like system that is driven by its engine for takeoff and landing only, and includes one or more conventional propeller or jet engines to provide forward thrust during cruising flig ...

. In the Rotodyne, the Eland powered the tractor propellers for forward flight and a compressor, via a clutch and shaft arrangement, to feed the rotor tip-jets with compressed air for vertical flight.

Variants

; Eland N.El.1: + residual thrust, static at sea level ICAN conditions. ; Eland N.El.3: Powerplant for the

Fairey Rotodyne The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses.tip jet A tip jet is a jet nozzle at the tip of some helicopter rotor blades, used to spin the rotor, much like a Catherine wheel firework. Tip jets replace the normal shaft drive and have the advantage of placing no torque on the airframe, thus not re ...

s + residual thrust, static at sea level ICAN conditions. ; Eland N.El.4: + residual thrust, static at sea level ICAN conditions. ; Eland N.El.6: ; Eland N.El.7: The 504 adapted to helicopter / convertiplane, compressed air generator use. ; Eland E.211: The 504 adapted for mechanically driven helicopter rotors. ; Eland 504:(N.El.6) ; Eland 508: 504 with increased max continuous rating.

Applications

Airspeed Eland Ambassador at Farnborough 1955

Turboshaft

Turboprop

Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan The Canadair CL-66 was a turboprop version of the civilian Convair CV-440 Metropolitan. The CC-109 Cosmopolitan or "Cosmo" in RCAF service became the standard VIP aircraft as well as replacing the Douglas Dakota and the North American B-25 Mit ...

(CL-66) *

Convair CV-540 Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. In 1953, it ...

Fairey Rotodyne The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses.Vickers Varsity The Vickers Varsity is a retired British twin-engined crew trainer operated by the Royal Air Force from 1951 to 1976. Design and development The Varsity was developed by Vickers and based on the Viking and Valetta to meet Air Ministry Spec ...

(one aircraft as an engine test bed in 1954)

Engines on display

A turboshaft Eland is on display at the Helicopter Museum,

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmix ...

.The Helicopter Museum - Fairey Rotodyne
Retrieved: 28 July 2009

Specifications (Eland N.El.6)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Gunston, Bill. ''World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines''. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. *

External links

Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum - Napier Eland 504 information sheet
a 1959 ''Flight'' article {{Napier aeroengines Eland 1950s turboshaft engines Axial-compressor gas turbine engines