The Bristol Type 76 Jupiter Fighter and Type 89 Trainer were derivatives of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

fighter of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

(the F.2 Fighter), powered by

Bristol Jupiter The Bristol Jupiter was a British nine-cylinder single-row piston radial engine built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Originally designed late in World War I and known as the Cosmos Jupiter, a lengthy series of upgrades and developments turn ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ...

s. While unsuccessful as a fighter, it was used as an advanced trainer aircraft between 1924 and 1933.

Design and development

In order to demonstrate their new

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

engine in an inexpensive yet relatively high performance aircraft, the

Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable a ...

authorised the conversion of three war-surplus F.2 airframes to use the Jupiter, to create the Type 76 Jupiter Fighter, which it was also hoped to sell as a fighter to foreign air forces.Mason, Francis K. ''The British Fighter since 1912''. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1992. . The first of these three aircraft flew in June 1923. While the engine installation proved satisfactory, as the Type 76 had the same fuel capacity as the F.2, the increased fuel consumption of the Jupiter compared with the F.2's original Rolls-Royce Falcon meant that the aircraft had inadequate range for use as a fighter, while the slipstream over the observer's cockpit meant that the observer could not use his .303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Gun. Because of these flaws, no more Type 76s were built after the initial three. While unsuitable as a fighter, the success of the engine installation of the Jupiter Fighter resulted in the decision to produce an advanced trainer version, to supplement the Siddeley Puma-engined

Bristol Tourer The Bristol Tourer was a British civil utility biplane produced in the years following the First World War, using as much as possible from the design of the Bristol Fighter aircraft. Bristol Tourers were delivered with a variety of engines, su ...

s already in use in this role. The result of this combination was the Type 89 Trainer, a total of 23 of which were produced.Barnes, C.H. ''Bristol Aircraft Since 1910''. London: Putnam, First edition, 1964.

Operational history

While the first Jupiter Fighter was evaluated at

Martlesham Heath Martlesham Heath village is situated 6 miles (10 km) east of Ipswich, in Suffolk, England. This was an ancient area of heathland and latterly the site of Martlesham Heath Airfield. A "new village" was established there in the mid-1970s and t ...

and found wanting, being lost on 23 November 1923 when the engine seized at high altitude,Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", ''

Air International ''AIR International'' is a British aviation magazine covering current defence aerospace and civil aviation topics. It has been in publication since 1971 and is currently published by Key Publishing Ltd. History and profile The magazine was fi ...

'', Bromley, Kent, U.K., January 1975, Volume 8, Number 1, page 46. the second was sent to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

for evaluation, where it coped excellently with the extreme cold of the Swedish winter, with the Jupiter, using normal fuels and winter

motor oil Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, deterg ...

, operating without trouble in temperatures which normally caused engine oil to freeze in hours. The second Type 76 was therefore purchased by the

Swedish Air Force The Swedish Air Force ( sv, Svenska flygvapnet or just ) is the air force branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. History The Swedish Air Force was created on 1 July, 1926 when the aircraft units of the Army and Navy were merged. Because of the e ...

, who operated it from May 1924 until 1935, when it was sold to a private buyer, finally being written off in 1936. The final Type 76 was used as a testbed for a high compression version of the Jupiter intended for use at high altitudes, which was fitted with a bi-fuel system to allow use of alcohol at low altitudes, then switching to normal petrol once the aircraft had reached sufficient altitude to prevent premature detonation ''(

Engine knocking In spark ignition internal combustion engines, knocking (also knock, detonation, spark knock, pinging or pinking) occurs when combustion of some of the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder does not result from propagation of the flame front ignit ...

)''. This system was rejected in favour of

supercharging In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induc ...

. The Jupiter-powered advanced trainers entered service with the Bristol-operated Reserve Flying School at

Filton Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church ...

in 1924. They were also used by the Reserve Flying School at

Renfrew Renfrew (; sco, Renfrew; gd, Rinn Friù) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Scotland's form ...

operated by

William Beardmore and Company William Beardmore and Company was a British engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active from 1886 to the mid-1930s and at its peak employed about 40,000 people. It was founded and ...

, with the Beardmore-owned aircraft being powered by Jupiter VI engines, while the Filton-based aircraft were powered by surplus Jupiter IV engines, as an economy measure. They remained in use at Renfrew until 1928, and at Filton until 1933, when they were replaced by

Hawker Hart The Hawker Hart is a British two-seater biplane light bomber aircraft that saw service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was designed during the 1920s by Sydney Camm and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. The Hart was a prominent British aircra ...

trainers and scrapped.Jackson, A.J. ''British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 1''. London: Putnam, 1974. .

Variants

;Type 76 :Prototype Bristol Jupiter Fighter. One built. ;Type 76B :Second prototype Jupiter Fighter - sold to Sweden, otherwise known as Swedish Fighter ;Type 76A :Third Jupiter Fighter - used for testing experimental bi-fuel Jupiter. Later converted to Type 89 ;Type 89 :Jupiter-powered advanced trainer. Nine built. ;Type 89A :Modified trainer with new,

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

-covered

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

fuselage. 15 built (including one built at Renfrew from spare parts and salvaged components from crashed aircraft)

Operators

*Filton Reserve Flying School *Renfrew Reserve Flying School

Specifications (Type 89)

References

6. Beardmore Aviation: The Story of a Scottish Industrial Giant's Aviation Activities,Publisher: A MacKay; 1st edition (8 Sep 2012)

External links

Bristol Jupiter-Fighter and Advanced Trainers
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