John Mortimer

Automotive Gas Turbines John Mortimer

During the Second World War, following the development of the jet engine by Sir Frank Whittle, the Rover Car Company became involved in the development of Whittle's gas turbine powered jet engine. As a result of this work, and following the end of the war, the company's engineers turned their attention to using gas turbines for cars and commercial vehicles. Noel Penny, one of Rover's engineers grew steadily enthusiastic about the gas turbine's potential and later became in charge of the company's work. Following on from Jet 1 and other later designs, his attention turned from cars to heavy trucks and, when Rover became part of British Leyland, Penny found himself in charge of Leyland Gas Turbines Ltd. Then Penny had the opportunity to found his own company and gained work from Caterpillar Inc. in the USA. His business designed other small gas turbines for aircraft. This book, while being Penny's story, also covers the work of other companies including Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Mack and Volvo.