Bristol Hercules sleeve valve radial animation

[R44ChopperII]

It has a better volumetric efficiency than a poppet valved engine so that's why it made more power than the P&W with a much smaller displacement. The Mk2 Tempest would be my aircraft of choice, I just need to sort the funding.

[pjwsnooty]

At last! I fully understand. Thankyou for making this video.

[TheCannonofMohammed]

Thanks for the video! I've been wondering how these things work for years!

[mpetersen6]

While the sleeve valve engine with its usually lower fuel consumption made sense for transport patrol aircraft I have always wondered if they were worth from the cost side of it for combat aircraft. Face most combat aircraft and engines are not going to be things with a lot of hours on them. And given the amount of precision machining, grinding and honing that go into the cylinders and sleeves them selves much less the amount of gears I'd go for a P&W R4360

[NearAbbeyRoad]

The engine is still used today after over 70 years. It powered a whole range of planes. Complex, but compact and "quiet"

[Cursorkeys]

And I thought the Deltic diesel design was the most ridiculous engine...seriously though this is a very clever arrangement. Sounds quite unique too.

Thanks for making such a great animation!

[YoungJim409]

I've read about this many times, but it was much easier to understand in pictures like this. Thank you for making this.

[BlackWiiOwner2010]

That is a cool animation!!

[Dokker62]

Many thanks for showing! I always wondered about the detailed design of the fabulous Bristol radials. Couldn´t imagine how the sleeve drive works exactly. Brilliant animation.

[seelder]

AMAZING

[Bamchucknorris]

How do they come up with these designs?

[antiussentiment]

great animation.

[filmer1100]

totenkop you're right the cylinder has three inlets, and two exhausts. The sleeve has four ports, one is shared between inlet and exhaust. Just to confuse things.

[totenkopf999]

Outstanding. I think the cylinder has three intake ports.

[omarsuarez73]

Very cool. Thanks for the animation.

[canals22]

Fabulous sstuff !! Many thanks !

[spencnaz]

Looks like you made this in Solidworks. I use Solidworks all the time for laying out mechanical parts and geometries.

[adamcrookedsmile]

Thanks for posting, I was reading up on Wikipedia about the Napier Sabre but couldn't quite get my head around how the sleeve valves worked. I always thought the sleeves were fixed.

[tarcus69]

Excellent. I went to Brooklands Museum in Kent, UK a few days ago and they had a Bristol and another sleeve-valve engine, with the second cut-away with a button you could press that made the whole thing turn over slowly. I could see the sleeve valves moving and the gear chain running, but didn't see what moved the valves, this completes the picture.

[greenfruitface]

Awesome. I too had wondered how these worked. Amazing.....thanks for uploading.

[n4120p]

In the development stages of aero engines during the 30's schnider trophy days italians and brits were fighting for the most power and pushing the limits on everything they had reach unsustainable levels of up to 50 gallons an hours oil comsumption,, they designed the engines that were later used in the war.I don't think they will last 5000 hours ,,,that is caterpilar time life,,, they were happy getting reliable 100 hours out of it, many got shot down before that. er.

[Critter145]

SImply fascinating. Thank you for uploading the video!

[swiftfb90racer]

Thanks for posting.I'd always wondered how the sleeves were actuated and was always a bit confused by written descriptions. I understand now, so thank you

[chilsam]

To many moving parts,they rob power from total output of engine.

[turboslag]

No , not really . There are no valve springs or cams which have high frictional losses and the engine speed is relatively low. Actually they solved all the problems with sleeve valves except manufacturing cost. This prevented them becoming used in road transport.

[schlusselmensch]

You're about right as I recall and it is interesting to note that no current poppet valve super or turbocharged aircraft engine will approach the top end durability of sleeve valve engines. They were very preignition/detonation resistant as well. If they had a down side in operation, it was perhaps higher oil consumption. Lovely pieces of machinery. Love the sound of 'em. Tried to buy a Willys Knight a few weeks ago but someone beat me to it. An animation of just one cylinder would be helpful.

[flexyco]

Very elegant solution!

[toastyovens]

The rate of wear on those gears would make it unfeasable..

[polaritDK]

well - it DID fly, powered one famous ww2 bomber

oh btw - another sleve valve engine was installet in certain versions of the typhoon &t empest, almost the only aircraft of the time to catch up to the V1doodlebug.

i guess you must be wrong about the rate of wear :-P

[MarsFKA]

@polaritDK Sorry to be a tedious plane spotter, but the Typhoons were not used to catch the V1 flying bombs - actually, the first cruise missile. Tempests were, certainly, but other aircraft were involved as well, such as Spitfires, Mosquitos, Mustangs and Thunderbolts.

[daswurger]

Excellent!

[ChargerMiles007]

Nice animation of the 14 cylinder Hercules, I was lucky enough to help tear some of them down one time.

I built a lawnmower engine that uses a sleeve valve, the head sesign is based on this engine.

[larrylewislarry]

From an enthusiast that is restoring one of these engines to running condition, THANK YOU for producing this animation. When those that I try to explain the workings to, get lost in the genius of the Hercules, I can send them here for an explanation.

Cheers!

[oisiaa]

Very, very cool!