Bristol Hercules Radials
 

On Saturday of this week one of my old Hercules engines is being brought back to life by some really good engineers up in North Yorkshire, I did previously loan that engine to the YAM, to fit into the Halifax, that was up there, however it came to my knowledge that the Halifax was no more, and my pristine Herc had been effectively dumped outside in the weather without any sort of protection, so after getting a little stern it was agreed that it could be collected , and so it came to pass, sadly a lot bits were missing along with a library of of paper details and boxes of spares such as plugs, spanners and like. Very sad to discover all that sort of problem.

However s group of enthusiastic and brilliant engineers contacted me and are now the owners of said Herc, they have located many parts and rebuilt the engine as well as locating and fitting a "Dumb Prop", and this Saturday it is hoped that with a few titres of primed fuel and the will of "Zeus" the Hercules will again bark out its powerful note's that will remind many of days gone by, plus it is hoped that another Herc from Stafford will also be there so we will hopefully have 28 cylinders making their muted sounds of power !.

The sad thing is that my old father has gone to the great apron in the sky, he would have loved to hear that sound again as he did way back in the 90's when my own engineers started it up for a few minutes, he spent most of WW2 in Beaufighter's, when we started the Herc in the 90's it was the first time I had seen tears rolling down his cheeks.

Our generation of "Boomers " owes an awful lot to those men and what they did, and endured, many were unlucky and didn't get back, they lucky ones just came back and got on with their lives.

Peter R-B
Lancashire for those of you who may want to see a good history of rebuilding a Bristol Herc look here........http://bristol-hercules.co.uk covers the Engine mentioned above

Great, I hope you will post video of it here! Shame they were so irresponsible with it.

"...a few titres of fuel..." ? Titre ye not (Frankie Howerd)

Hi Peter,

I have just sent you a pm.

Is the engine going to remain in North Yorkshire or will you be moving it nearer to you?

Joy ride,

sorry about that Titre, I think I had a few Cidre's......:D

Peter R-B

also look at the late added web address on my post for picture of my old Herc

I can well remember that the first time that I was about to fly a Hercules powered aircraft being told that the first man who could describe the workings of a sleeve-valve engine without the aid of a working model or a blackboard was a genius.

He was absolutely correct.

It was an absolutely beautiful engine to have on your wings (unless it went wrong - which it never did for me).

You say that the Halifax is no more. Has it been scrapped or has the museum closed?

I remember graduating from Oakington, and being told that I had been posted to Hercules – 2 on each wing.

1200 hours later I never had a failure, but the unit had a few ‘stop’. I seem to remember it was 1000 hours between overhaul. A bit different from the RB211!

I saw a Hercules running on a Sunday morning, at a gathering in Melton Mowbray a couple of years ago. Magnificent, although the nearest and dearest plus god children not really impressed. A shame it was not dark and you couldn't see the 3 feet of flame coming out of the exhaust stubs.

I just kept thinking about the 50 gallons of 100/130 it was burning every hour, and how could he afford to fire it up.

Good morning Staircase,

I am not really sure what happened to the Halifax, the original agreement was that Hercules that I offered to loan them would be fitted I think to No 1 Engine position, so it would be able to be started to allow visitors to see and hear what things were like during the Wartime effort by our fore fathers, Sadly I was mega busy but the YAM never kept me up to date on any happenings, eventually when I heard whispers about odd things happening and after making first contact again, I was fed with what could only be said to be utter lies.

Sadly deceit is not something one would expect from any Museum especially when it involves such rare and still in good order machinery, that now is history and a lesson learned,..Saturday awaits and the sound of a Bristol Hercules will again be heard in the Vale Of York
for those with interest in this take a peek at Bristol Hercules Rebuild

Peter R-B
Lancashire

A sad indictment indeed on those who should be able to be trusted with the preservation of our aviation heritage.

Good luck with the run tomorrow.

Thanks for the link - brilliant!

It gets spending 2 days trying to put the CV joint on my Volvo back together in perspective!

Staircase ,

The Halifax still exists , but it seems all interest in it has been dissipated, , so I am at a loss to see why the Yam didn't do what they said they would, but in any case yesterday I attended the starting up and running of two Bristol Hercules engines not far from Thirsk in North Yorkshire, the guys who took my Herc from the Yam have done an altogether brilliant job of getting it ready to fire up and run, and Brian Mills from Uttoxeter brought his as well.

They ran individually and after some initial mis-firing and coughs, started to run well, the last run of the day was two together with almost matched revs, the feeling of power being transmitted into the air and ground was unbelievable whilst some people may or would say they were very loud and noisy, well to me and all there who saw and heard this pair of Hercules engine thrashing the air with their four bladers it was pure music and history that could be heard and felt.

What a good day , hats of to the people who brought these engines back to life.
if I can achieve it I will post a short clip of the run, but may need to have some help , after all I am steam-age not really electronic age.

Peter R-B.......:D

Sounds grand and I hope you are able to post a clip!

I hope that ‘interest has dissipated’, is not code for just letting it degenerate until it is only good for scrap. I suppose I could say that I have flown half of it, when some of the ‘bits’ used were still attached to TG 536. To loose such an aeroplane would be nothing short of criminal. Oh to be able to see a Stirling again for example.

I would very much like to have been there to see 2 Hercules running. Just seeing one firing up reminded me of 8 blades before switching on the ignition, and the 7 immediate actions to shut one down after a fire/failure; and who now remembers such techniques as having to cruise descend?

I urge you and your engineers to keep up the good work. In a way, it is a bit like keeping my old log books. My kids have no interest in them, or the grand kids for that matter, but 2 or 3 generations on I think they could well be a talking point, as will these old pieces of engines and aeroplanes. At least I do hope that this will be the case.

To all of you following this,, if you go to "You Tube, and ask for

" X2 Bristol Hercules Engine Demonstration "

you should be able to see the two Bristol Hercules Radials on their final run of the day, if you like that sort of music..then turn up your speakers

Another run is planned soon so if anyone would like details of where and when drop me an e or PM
[email protected].

Also we are looking for a suitable prop so we can create an Dumb propeller for engine No 3.

Many regards :ok:

Peter R-B
Lancashire

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq5mfaFjjaM

Fabulous !

Superb, thanks!

All it needs is a fuselage in the middle and you've got a Varsity! Had the pleasure of some fifty hours on the old lady back in '73.

Same here (95 hours on the Varsity in 1962) - absolutely wonderful - thank you for letting us listen to your engine!

Herod,
one of the locals who was there on Saturday remarked the last time any Radial Pistons flew out from Topcliffe whilst under the Blue Flag, was in fact a Varsity.

As we were only a hard thrown cricket ball's distance from there, anyone on that field would have been able to hear the mellow trumpeting of the Hercules breathing out through the Bristol Freighter Tubes...

Another thing I was shown was the simple way a quick cylinder and piston, cyl head and sleeve valve cylinder could be changed, I really didn't appreciate whilst it was a Devil of a complex engine to design and manufacture the Hercules was so simple to work on "on site", .. a cylinder head , cylinder, sleeve valve and piston could all be removed and replaced very quickly owing to the lack of overhead valve and valve gearing gear, and yet another brilliant piece of design was the porting on the Sleeve Valve which had 4 holes to mate up to 5 ports, 2 exhaust ports and 3 induction ports meant the movement and timing of the sleeve valve on induction allowed the sleeve valve to cover three breathing in...and two exhausting, the sleeve valve acted as the cylinder for the piston to make its compression and power, but also moved around a in a known circle to revolve the ports to do their job, and was held vertical by an ingenious means of two piston rings set into the cylinder head which the sleeve fitted over, the man who designed the Hercules engine must have been a proper genius.. for it was all done with a pencil and slide rules...not a PC in sight

Peter R-B
Lancashire:ok:

See my post at #5.

Peter, what is it blowing off the LH (or stbd if you're flying it) about 1:05 into the clip?