喷气发动机
The objective of the design was to produce a civilian power plant with far superior fuel efficiency to the emerging jet engine. Thermal efficiency is given by formula_1, where "T" is the exhaust temperature in kelvins and "T" is the peak combustion temperature. Jet engines have relatively low-temperature combustion systems which produce a "T" of no more than about 1,000 K, much less than the typical 5,000 K of a reciprocating engine, and so jets have very poor thermal efficiency. The Nomad design focused on replacing the low-temperature combustion chambers of the jet engine with highly efficient Diesel combustion chambers. In practice, it was much too difficult to couple the diesel power output back into the turbine cycle. The maximum practical power of the Nomad was , and it was much heavier than a pure jet of the same power. By this time civilian jets such as the Boeing 707 were nearing completion, and the Nomad was never seriously considered by any aircraft manufacturer.