Bristol (company)

Bristol (company)
Company information
Type	Aviation company
Headquarters	Bristol, England
Active in	British Empire
Products
Production lines	Bristol Type 140 Balmoral Bristol Somerset Mercury engine Pegasus engine
Used in	Bristol Type 140 Balmoral (Mercury II engine) Fairey Swordfish (Pegasus III, Pegasus 40)

Bristol is a company featured in Crimson Skies. A British firm, they built both airframes and engines for the British Empire, most notably the Bristol Type 140 Balmoral bomber and the Mercury series of engines for it.

Products

Bristol Type 140 Balmoral

"This older British light bomber has seen action around the world in service of the Empire. The Balmoral has found itself the mainstay of British colonial bomber support in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific."

—in-game description of the Balmoral

Main articles: Bristol Type 140 Balmoral and Bristol Type 140 Balmoral (tabletop)

The Balmoral was a twin engine light bomber design for service in the wider Empire, in colonial territories where a hostile air force was either small or non-existent. The Balmoral featured two engines, but the heavily armored nature of the bomber meant it was still very slow even with its twin engines. The speed helped with pinpoint bombing, though, and two defensive turrets meant the bomber was far from helpless when attacked by enemy fighters.

Bristol Somerset

Main article: Bristol Somerset

Bristol produced the prototype of the Somerset in 1933 for the RAF, meant to be a larger, longer range bomber to protect the further assets of the Empire. However, the British turned it down, citing the Balmoral as still being adequate for the Empire's needs. Despite getting permission to market it to North American, no nations took to it until the Protectorate of Ontario snatched up as many Somersets as they could, saving the design. The Somerset was far larger than the Balmoral, with four pusher engines mounted on the wings. A whole battery of turrets adorned the Somerset, with a bow, aft, below and waist gun turrets, making it far more dangerous for attacking aircraft than the Balmoral.

Mercury engine series

"The Bristol Mercury engines are noted for their excellent power/thrust ratio, long-term reliability, and durability in combat. The Mercury engines are used for three of Bristol's own heavy airplanes in Royal Air Force service and are the right engines for your heavy lifting needs."

—Engine description

Mercury IV

The lowest powered engine of the Mercury line, the Mercury IV cost $2,125 and weighed 2,500 lbs. Despite this, it was only capable of propelling the Balmoral at a speed of just 113 m.p.h.

Mercury V

The standard engine that came with any new Balmoral purchased, the Mercury V cost $2,550 and weighed 3,000 lbs. This extra cost and weight paid off in the form of extra speed for the Balmoral, increasing the top speed to 126 m.p.h. thanks to the engines producing 520 h.p. each.

Mercury VI

The highest spec engine in the Mercury line, the Mercury VI cost a whopping $2,975 and weighed a hefty 3,500 lbs, but this meant it could propel the Balmoral to a massive 138 m.p.h. top speed.

Nitrous

Following the heist of the Hughes Bloodhawk and rescue of Wilhelm Fassenbiender by Nathan Zachary, the Mercury series of engines were able to be fitted with nitrous oxide boost which increased their top speeds and allowed for a short supercharged burst of speed. The addition of nitrous caused the engines to become even heavier and cost more than their base variants, adding an additional 500 lbs to each engine's weight, causing the Mercury VI to weigh a hefty 4,000 lbs with the nitrous. Price increase from the nitrous caused the Mercury IV nitro to cost $2,555, the Mercury V nitro to cost $2,980 and the already expensive Mercury VI to now cost $3,405 with the nitro.

However, the considerable power increase meant that even the Mercury IV nitro could attain a top speed of 150 m.p.h, faster than the base engine by nearly 40 m.p.h. The Mercury V nitro could reach speeds of 167 m.p.h. and the Mercury VI nitro was able to attain 184 m.p.h, almost 50 m.p.h faster than the standard Mercury VI.

Pegasus III

The Pegasus III is the primary engine for the Fairey Swordfish, producing 1,188 horsepower. The engine served as the primary engine variant for the Swordfish in its early and middle years, though as the aircraft aged, some Swordfish were upgraded to the more powerful Pegasus 40.

Pegasus 40

The Pegasus 40 was a more powerful and later development of the Pegasus line of engines, and they began being used in the aging Swordfish as it flew into the latter half of the 1930s. The powerful engine came at a cost of reducing the primary firepower to the lightest caliber guns available.

Trivia

• The Mercury engines are the only engine series in the game to not receive additional description for the nitro engines after the nitro-booster is unlocked.
• The stats of the Mercury V are different in the PC game compared to those found on Firedrake. According to the Firedrake website, the Mercury V can propel the Balmoral to 150 m.p.h but in-game, the Balmoral only reaches 138 m.p.h.