Editing Bristol Taurus (section)

==Design and development==
Bristol had originally intended to use the Aquila and [[Bristol Perseus|Perseus]] as two of its major product lines in the 1930s, but the rapid increase in size and speed of aircraft in the 1930s demanded much larger engines. The mechanicals from both of these designs were then put into two-row configurations to develop much larger engines, the Aquila becoming the Taurus, and the Perseus becoming the [[Bristol Hercules|Hercules]].

The Taurus used [[sleeve valve]]s, resulting in an uncluttered exterior and little mechanical noise. It offered high power with a relatively low weight, starting from {{cvt|1015|hp}} in the earliest versions. It was also compact, with a diameter of {{cvt|46|in|mm}}  which made it attractive for fighters. Unfortunately, the engine was also described as "notoriously troublesome", with protracted development and a slow growth in rated power. After several years of development, power had only increased from {{cvt|1015|hp}} to {{cvt|1130|hp}}. As the most important applications of this engine was in aircraft that flew at low altitude, development efforts focused on low-altitude performance.

The first Taurus engines were delivered just before [[World War II]], and was used primarily in the [[Fairey Albacore]] and Bristol's [[Bristol Beaufort|Beaufort]]. In April 1940, a suggestion was made to replace the Taurus engines of the latter with the [[Pratt & Whitney R-1830]] ''Twin Wasp'', which had a slightly larger {{cvt|48|in}} diameter, but this change was postponed to the autumn of 1941 while attempts were made to cure the Taurus's reliability problems, and later had to be temporarily reversed because of shortages of Twin Wasps. The Twin Wasp was, however, strongly preferred, especially for overseas postings, because of its better reliability. The reliability problems were mostly cured in later models of the Taurus engine by a change in the cylinder manufacturing process, although the engine reputation never recovered, and in the Albacore the Taurus engine was used until the end of that aircraft's production in 1943.<ref>Lumsden 2003, p.115.</ref>

There were no other operational applications of the Taurus engine, because its initial reliability problems discouraged development of Taurus-powered aircraft, and because later-war combat aircraft demanded more powerful engines. Production ended in favour of the Hercules engine.