D. Napier and Son were famous for producing somewhat baroque reciprocating engines, the Sabre and Nomad spring to mind. However these engines were meticulously engineered and superbly finished. Napiers, like Wright in the US, tried to ignore the gas turbine as a passing fancy, but by the late 40s both companies realised that the gas turbine was here to stay. It has been said that the early centrifugal gas turbines were too simple for Napier to bother about.
Napiers took up the challenge of gas turbines and, true to form produced some esoteric engines such as the Oryx and Eland gas generators for helicopters. One area where Napiers did take an interest was the ramjet. Despite being the simplest form of jet engine, ramjets must have been "interesting" enough for Napiers to become interested. Starting with a research contract from the NGTE (National Gas Turbine Establishment) Napiers produced a 16" ramjet the NRJ.1 (meanwhile the RAE was advocating smaller ramjets as the way ahead) to be flight tested in a test vehicle called the RJTV.
This was a fairly simple vehicle with a pitot intake and a fairly basic burner, but it did work and was flown in a series of tests during which it claimed a new altitude record. Napiers continued to work on ramjets and this work included RJTV.2 a M3 ramjet test vehicle and the integrated wing ramjet for the English Electric P.10. This was also known as the "spilt wing" ramjet.
Napiers also embarked on the development of turborockets.
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test vehicles or ramjets