Kenworth » series 500 with gas turbine engine Boeing

In the 50s a gas turbines were considered as an alternative to gasoline and diesel engines. In 1950, Boeing in cooperation with the Kenworth company successfully installed under the hood of a truck a 175 hp gas turbine. It weighed only 200 pounds - thirteen times less than a diesel of similar power. And it was very small, so it seemed that under the hood there was no engine at all! Gas turbine powered Kenworth had crossed the United States from north to south, and then worked briefly in commercial traffic plying on the western coast, between Seattle and Los Angeles. But the tests, alas, failed. First of all, the trip lasted five or six hours longer than with conventional diesel engine: a gas turbine powered truck was accelerated slowly, heavily smoked, while squeezing the clutch pedal was a real torture (despite the fact that even the conventional old "Americans" have vere tight clutch). But the main problem was that the consumption of turbine was equaled a mile per gallon, or 235 l/100 km!