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Concept
Bristol Taurus
Summary
The Taurus is a British 14-cylinder two-row radial aircraft engine, produced by the Bristol Engine Company starting in 1936. The Taurus was developed by adding cylinders to the existing single-row Aquila design and transforming it into a twin-row radial engine, creating a powerplant that produced just over with very low weight.
Bristol had originally intended to use the Aquila and Perseus as two of its major product lines in the 1930s, but the rapid increase in size and speed of aircraft in the 1930s demanded much larger engines than either of these. The mechanicals from both of these designs were then put into two-row configurations to develop much larger engines, the Aquila becoming the Taurus, and the Perseus becoming the Hercules.
The Taurus was a sleeve valve design, resulting in an extraordinarily uncluttered exterior and very low mechanical noise. It offered high power with a relatively low weight, starting from in the earliest versions. It was also compact, with a diameter of which made it attractive to fighter designers. Unfortunately, the engine has also been described as "notoriously troublesome", with protracted development and a slow growth in rated power. After several years of development, power had been increased from to only . As the most important applications of this engine were in aircraft that flew at low altitude, engine development efforts focussed on low-altitude performance.
The first Taurus engines were delivered just before World War II began and found some use primarily in the Fairey Albacore and Bristol's own Beaufort torpedo bomber. Starting from April 1940, it was suggested to replace the Taurus engines of the latter by the famous Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp, itself possessing a slightly larger diameter, but this change was postponed to the autumn of 1941 while attempts were made to cure the reliability problems of the Taurus, and later had to be temporarily reversed because of shortages of Twin Wasp engines. The Twin Wasp was, however, strongly preferred, especially for overseas postings, because of its much greater reliability.
Official source
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