Bristol Mercury

The Thistlegorm also contains cylinders from Bristol Mercury radial engines and around twenty Bristol Mercury engine cowlings. The examples found on the Thistlegorm are shown alongside examples photographed at the Aircraft Restoration Company’s workshop at Duxford.

The Bristol Mercury is a nine-cylinder, air-cooled, single-row, piston radial engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Developed from the earlier Jupiter engine, later variants could produce 800 horsepower (600 kW) from its capacity of 1,500 cubic inches (25 L) by use of a geared supercharger.