Bristol Taurus

Bristol

Configuration
14-cylinder two-row air-cooled sleeve-valve radial
Power
~1,015–1,130 hp

About

The Taurus was Bristol’s smallest two-row sleeve-valve radial — fourteen cylinders giving around 1,015 to 1,130 hp in a tightly cowled 46-inch package. Notoriously troublesome in service, with cooling and reliability problems that were only gradually cured, it powered the Bristol Beaufort torpedo-bomber and the Fairey Albacore biplane. It was soon eclipsed by Bristol’s larger and far more successful Hercules.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Bristol Taurus — Wikipedia and Lumsden, Alec — British Piston Aero-Engines and their Aircraft (Airlife, 2003). The text is original and has been written from factual source material.

Aircraft using this engine

Photographs

British fourteen-cylinder, air-cooled, two-row radial engine producing 1085hp. First running in 1936, the Taurus was used in the Fairey Albacore and Bristol Beaufort, but was soon replaced by more reliable alternatives such as the Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp. Unusually for this collection, there is no evidence of this engine type seeing any Portuguese military service. Museu do Ar, Alverca do Ribatejo, Portugal 19th September 2022
ⓘ licence & creditAlan Wilson from Peterborough, Cambs, UK / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Taurus_XII_at_the_Museu_do_Ar,_Alverca._19-9-2022_(53737614588).jpgView source & full licence →