The Boeing 500 series turbo-shaft engines were developed as an aircraft power plant that could also be used in the stationary role. It was not developed on behalf of the USMC. The QH-50 ASW drone series was powered by Boeing turbine engines.
Variants of the 502-10 were what was used in the Kenworth experiments, as well as the SAC "Fireboid" in which one was installed in a Kurtis-Kraft front-engined Indy roadster, it was built in a SAC base hobbyshop with support from Boeing and General Curtis Le May. This was followed in 1962 by the mid-engined John Zink "Trackburner", the first serious attempt at a gas turbine powered Indy entry, which was to be driven by the young Dan Gurney. The car had many problems so it did not qualify
and Gurney jumped ship to Mickey Thompson's team. Ford installed a 502 turbine in a 1955 Thunderbird as a test of the suitability of gas turbine powerplants in automobiles.
In 1962 Boeing Gas Turbine Division engineer Len Williams installed a surplus 502 in his 1932 Ford high-boy hot rod which he drove for the following 27 years. The car survives today and is in the LeMay museum in Tacoma Washington. In 1957 Len had presented a paper on the use of gas turbines in Indy competition. The paper included a concept for installing a 502 in Kurtiss-Kraft 500D chassis in place of the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine. I've not seen the illustration in the paper, but I was able to handle and scan one of his original pencil on vellum drawings showing engine placement and exhaust pipe, but not the position of the air inlet and other details. The drawing was in the possesion of a retired engineer friend who had worked with Len in the Gas Turbine Division.
Len and Frank Kurtiss had sketched out a mid-engine concept in 1958 that didn't go anywhere, but Len was involved in the 1962 John Zink car in both the design and operational aspects. He and a couple of other Boeing engineers were at Indy in support as company representatives. Boeing was very interested in the project and its results, regardless of its success as a racing car.
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