Aeroplane engine, produced for Blackburn Beverley transport aircraft

This Bristol Siddeley Centaurus 175 aero engine was produced in 1958 for use in the Blackburn Beverley, a large troop and vehicle transport aircraft in service with the RAF between 1955 and 1968.

The 18-cylinder, 2,935-horsepower engine is a sleeve valve radial, there being a ring with triangular inlet and outlet holes located around its circumference. This 'sleeve valve' would move via a mass of gearings between the cylinder wall and the piston. The gearing system comprised a vast number of cogs rotating behind the cylinder banks. The engine has a nameplate marked 'BRISTOL SIDDELEY CENTAURUS CHANGE UNIT MARK 17501, SERIAL No 175280, A.M. No 658897'.

The Centaurus was the last and most powerful British-built piston engine to be put into production at the end of a period which started in 1936 and included the war years, when the Centaurus powered such aircraft as the Hawker, Tempest II fighter and the Bristol Brigand light bomber.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-104-242-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1972.110
• Date: 1958
  
• Material: Inscription: BRISTOL SIDDELEY CENTAURUS CHANGE UNIT MARK 17501, SERIAL No 175280, A.M. No 658897
  Aero-engine / Centaurus
  
• Dimensions: 84.00" L x 60.00" D
  
• What: Aero-engine / Centaurus
  
• Subject: 1. AERONAUTICS, Piston engines (Departmental Classification)
  
• Who: Blackburn Beverley (Engine used in this aircraft)
  Bristol Siddeley (Maker)
  
• Where: ENGLAND
  
• Event:
• Description: Centaurus aero-engine by Bristol Siddeley and used in the Blackburn Beverley military transport aircraft, 1958
  
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