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NEWSBRISTOL HERCULES ENGINE ACQUISITIONSee also PROJECTS
IT'S big. It's hairy. It's very, very heavy, and boy did we struggle. Now finally we are proud owners of our first Bristol Hercules engine as fitted to the Halifax, Lancaster etc. It was quite a saga getting it... As a sign of our growing pains, the logistics of this exercise were always going to be the most difficult to overcome.
One of the big project requirements for BCH is an aim to acquire and restore major items of aircraft, airframes, systems and powerplants. Due to our meagre resources and lack of facilities this is obviously a struggle at this stage of our development. However, a big step forward has now been taken with the acquisition of a Bristol Hercules engine. Fortunately a helpful scrap yard owner in the wilds of the North of England has given us an opportunity to save this magnificent piece of British engineering. The moving of such a beast from one end of the country to the other, using suitable transport, lifting gear, and storage has frankly been a complete nightmare. So for future, similar, projects we would love some help if anybody out there has suitable gear? As it is there is a host of people we must thank along the way. Transport and pick-up from up North, loading, drive down south only to find we could not get it offloaded into our loaned storage facility. Over to Kemble to blag some help and a fork lift as everything started to go pear-shaped. Many thanks to Richard Glover at M1 Hangar for emergency fork lift and storage facilities. Then a repeat exercise but on a trailer, van, and much delicate use of a JCB. Casualty one tree. Many thanks to all at Devonair and Martin Whale who once again dug us out of a very deep hole! Finally we managed it, and our Herc is now squirreled away all safe and secure. So she will now be a major project for us, one of the first tasks being to identify exactly what mark, and even what aircraft it came from? Some form of suitable engine stand fabrication is also a must, as she will suffer even more damage just on the pitiful remains of the one it came on. Then we need to sit down quietly and assess exactly what our restoration goals are. If the internals are sound then who knows where it may lead us? Just imagine hearing the sound of a real live Bristol Hercules turning over - even if it's just a few blips on a ground-run.
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