Rolls‑Royce Vulture engine

E288495

The Rolls‑Royce Vulture engine was a British experimental 24-cylinder X-type aircraft piston engine developed in the late 1930s that, despite powering a few early World War II bombers, was ultimately abandoned due to reliability problems.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Rolls‑Royce Vulture engine canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf X-24 engine
aircraft piston engine
liquid-cooled aircraft engine
approximatePowerOutput 1750 hp
1800 hp
bore 5 inches
compressionRatio 6.0:1
configuration X-24
coolingSystem liquid-cooled
countryOfOrigin United Kingdom
designConcept two Peregrine V-12 engines on a common crankcase
designDerivedFrom Rolls-Royce Peregrine
developedInPeriod late 1930s
developmentLocation Derby, England
linked to: Derby
displacement about 42 litres
engineCycle four-stroke
era World War II
firstRunDate 1937
fuelSystem carburettor
fuelType aviation gasoline
historicalSignificance example of unsuccessful high-output piston engine development
ignitionSystem dual ignition
intendedApplications heavy fighters
twin-engined bombers
intendedRole high-power aircraft engine
ledToAircraftRedesign Avro Lancaster
manufacturer Rolls-Royce Limited
notableIssue insufficient development time
maintenance difficulties
numberOfCylinders 24
productionStatus limited production
programCancelled 1941
propellerDrive reduction gear
reasonForAbandonment bearing failures
crankshaft failures
overheating
reliability problems
replacedBy Rolls-Royce Merlin (in Avro Manchester derivatives)
linked to: Rolls-Royce Merlin
status abandoned
experimental
stroke 5.5 inches
supercharging single-stage supercharger
usedBy Royal Air Force
usedInAircraft Avro Manchester
Blackburn B-20 (prototype)
linked to: Blackburn B-20

Fairey Battle (testbed)
linked to: Fairey Battle

Hawker Tornado
Vickers Warwick (prototypes)
usedInConflict Second World War
linked to: World War II
valveTrain overhead valve

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Avro Manchester powerplant Rolls‑Royce Vulture engine