The theoretical advantage to gas turbines, besides their ability to swallow up a wide range of fuels, is their relative lightness and compactness compared to other internal combustion engines (gasoline, diesel) of the same output. Boeing decided to illustrate that advantage with this press photo we recently scrounged up, dated April 10, 1950, showing one of its 175-hp gas turbines installed in a contemporary Kenworth conventional.

The caption: "Gas Turbine and Diesel Truck Installations Show Vividly Simplicity of New Boeing Engine. Identical Kenworth Motor Truck Corporation units, powered by the new Boeing Airplane Company 175-horsepower gas turbine (left) and a diesel power plant of similar rating (right) are disclosed in this just-released photograph. The new Boeing gas turbine, which weighs only 200 pounds, has been undergoing road test near Seattle in the ten-ton truck for the past month. As installed experimentally, the Boeing turbine occupies only 13 percent of the space normally taken up by a conventional gasoline or diesel engine of equal power. The new engine operated on the same principle as the ship steam turbine and will burn kerosene, diesel oil or gasoline."

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