The Aquila was a 9-cylinder one-row radialaircraft engine produced by the Bristol Engine Company starting in 1934. It saw little use, as its power range was already covered by existing designs. Its primary use was to supply mechanicals to a 14_cylinder version, the Taurus.
The Aquila was developed at the same time as the somewhat larger Perseus, both being sleeve valve designs. The primary difference was in size, the Perseus was based on the 5.75 by 6.5 in (146 by 165 mm) cylinder used in the famous Jupiter engine, while the Aquila used a new and smaller 5 by 5.4 in (127 by 137 mm) sized cylinder. The result was a reduction in displacement from 1520 to 950 cubic inches (24.9 to 15.6 L).
The first Aquila engine delivered a modest 365 horsepower (270 kW), which was hardly spectacular for an engine of this size. It soon developed into more powerful versions as improvements were worked into the line (as well as similar changes to the Perseus), and by 1936 it had improved to 500 hp (370 kW). This made it an excellent replacement for the Jupiter, which ended production at 590 hp (440 kW) three years earlier, but by this time almost all interest was on ever-larger engines. The Aquila saw almost no use.
The Aquila was developed at the same time as the somewhat larger Perseus, both being sleeve valve designs.
The primary difference was in size, the Perseus was based on the 5.75 by 6.5 in (146 by 165 mm) cylinder used in the famous Jupiter engine, while the Aquila used a new and smaller 5 by 5.4 in (127 by 137 mm) sized cylinder.
The first Aquila engine delivered a modest 365 horsepower (270 kW), which was hardly spectacular for an engine of this size.
Bristol had originally intended to use the Aquila and Perseus as two of its major designs in the 1930s, but the rapid increase in size and speed of aircraft in the 1930s demanded much larger engines than either of these.
The mechanicals from both of these designs were then put into two-row configuations to develop much larger engines, the Aquila becoming the Taurus, and the Perseus becoming the Hercules.
Unlike the earlier engines, where the sleeve valve was a new and untried design, the Taurus was fairly well understood and was delivered running at almost the same power it ended with, at 1,015 hp (760 kW).
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