(first run in 1955)

The Napier Gazelle was a turboshaft engine manufactured by Napier in the 1950s.  It was designed to be used by helicopters.  In Australia they powered the Westland Wessex anti-submarine helicopters flown by the Royal Australian Navy between 1963 and 1989.

D Napier and Son was a British engineering company best known for its luxury and racing cars before World War 1.  When sales of private vehicles collapsed on the outbreak of war Napier began building aero engines and aircraft designed by other companies.  From 1916 the company also began designing its own engines.

During World War 2 Napier designed and built engines for locomotives, torpedo boats and minesweepers.  It also developed the Sabre aero engine which eventually became the most powerful piston engine in the world, generating 2,600kW (3,500hp).

After the war Napier decided to specialize in turboshaft engines, mainly for helicopters.  The most successful of them was the Gazelle engine which could generate 940kW (1,260shp) and up to 1,500kW (1,500shp) in emergencies.

The Westland Wessex was a license built version of an American Sikorsky helicopter.  By replacing that helicopter’s piston engine with a Napier Gazelle engine the Wessex was 212kg (600lb) lighter.

Napier was taken over by Rolls Royce in the 1960s and development and manufacture of Napier engines was terminated.