Bristol Pegasus
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- For the vectored thrust engine, see Rolls-Royce Pegasus
- Bristol Pegasus is also a motor-racing club in Bristol, England.
History
The Pegasus was designed by Sir Roy Fedden as the follow-on to the Bristol Aeroplane Company's very successful Bristol Jupiter, following lessons learned in the Mercury effort. Confusingly, Bristol chose to reuse the name many years later for the engine used in the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier; that engine later became known as the Rolls-Royce Pegasus.The Pegasus was the same size, displacement and general steel/aluminium construction as the Jupiter, but other improvements allowed the maximum engine speed to be increased from 1,950 to 2,600 rpm for take-off power. This improved performance considerably from the Jupiter's 580 hp (430 kW), to the first Pegasus II with 635 hp (474 kW), to 690 hp (515 kW) in the first production model Pegasus III, and eventually to the late-model Pegasus XXII with 1,010 hp (750 kW) thanks to the two-speed supercharger (introduced on the Pegasus XVIII) and 100-octane fuel. This gave rise to the claim "one pound per horsepower" reflecting the excellent power-to-weight ratio.
The most famous use of the Pegasus was on the Fairey Swordfish, Vickers Wellington, and Short Sunderland. It was also used on the Bristol Bombay, Vickers Wellesley, Westland Wallace, and Saro London. Like the Jupiter before it, the Pegasus was also licensed, but this time only by the PZL company in Poland. It was used it on PZL.23 Karaś and PZL.37 Łoś bombers.
Over 17,000 Pegasus engines were built.
Specifications (Pegasus XVIII)
References
- Bridgman, L, (ed.) (1998) Jane's fighting aircraft of World War II. Crescent. ISBN 0517679647
See also
| Bristol Aeroplane Company>Bristol / Bristol Siddeley aero-engines |
| Piston |
| Jupiter - Pegasus - Centaurus - Mercury - Hercules - Phoenix -Perseus - Taurus |
| Turbojet/Turbofan |
| Olympus - Orpheus - Pegasus - BS100 |
| Turboprop |
| Theseus - Proteus - Orion |
| Ramjet |
| Thor |
|
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