Bentley BR2

BR.2
Preserved Bentley B.R.2
Type	Rotary engine
Manufacturer	Humber Limited
First run	1916
Major applications	Sopwith Snipe
Number built	2,567
Developed from	Bentley BR.1

The Bentley B.R.2 was a British rotary aircraft engine developed during the First World War by the motor car engine designer W. O. Bentley from his earlier Bentley BR.1. Coming as it did near the end of the war, the BR.2 was built in smaller numbers than the earlier BR.1 – its main use being by the Royal Air Force in the early 1920s.

The initial variant of the BR.2 developed 230 horsepower (170 kW), with nine cylinders measuring 5.5 by 7.1 inches (140 mm × 180 mm) for a total displacement of 1,522 cubic inches (24.9 L). It weighed 490 pounds (220 kg), only 93 pounds (42 kg) more than the Bentley B.R.1 (A.R.1).

The Sopwith Snipe, selected as the standard single-seat fighter of the post-war RAF was designed around the BR.2 – it was also used by the ground attack version of the Snipe, the Sopwith TF-2 Salamander.

This was the last type of rotary engine to be used by the RAF – later air-cooled aircraft engines being almost entirely of the fixed radial type. The BR.2 represented the peak of rotary engine development.

A Bentley BR.2 is on public display in the Science Museum (London), another forms part of the aero engine collection at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford.

A ¼ scale working replica of the Bentley BR.2 World War I rotary aero engine built by Lewis Kinleside Blackmore is currently on display at the Bentley Memorial Building in Oxfordshire, UK. This was the first model built of this engine and is the subject also of a book by L K Blackmore.

The Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada has a BR.2 installed in their Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe.

Data from Jane's

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