- Cosmos Engineering Co Ltd
- Pall Mall, London and Fishponds, Bristol
- In early 1919 the aero-engine business of Brazil, Straker & Co (est.1893) of Fishponds, Bristol, a car and bus manufacturing firm which had branched out into aircraft engine repair and manufacture, were taken over by the Anglo-American Cosmos group that had its origins in coal and shipping in South Wales. Brazil, Straker & Co’s aero-engine work had begun during the First World War by first reconditioning, then substantially redesigning and re-manufacturing Curtiss OX-5 engines, under the direction of A H Roy Fedden, the company’s chief engineer and technical director, and his draughtsman, Leonard Butler. Brazil, Straker & Co was one of the first firms to be brought under Admiralty control and due to the quality of its recent work was asked to build a new engine designed by Roll-Royce for coastal airships. Indeed, it was the only company permitted to manufacture Rolls-Royce aircraft engines under licence, building Hawk and Falcon engines, major components for the Eagle engine and also 600 Renault 80hp (8Ca) engines. Over 1,500 engines were produced in total. Roy Fedden also designed two engines during the war: the 14-cylinder Mercury and the larger, 9-cylinder Jupiter. After Cosmos took over Brazil, Straker & Co’s aero-engine business in 1919 the new firm was named Cosmos Engineering Co Ltd. In 1919 the product range consisted of the 450hp Jupiter, the 300hp Mercury and the smaller 100hp Lucifer. Despite selling off the engineering side of Brazil, Straker – which continued to successfully build cars – Cosmos Engineering Co also produced a small number of Fedden-designed cars. The Cosmos 10.5 of 1919, featured an air-cooled three-cylinder radial layout 994cc engine of 16hp and pressed-steel wobbly-web wheels, and was innovative for its time. Only a few were made, and it was followed up by the larger 10.5 C.A.R., which never got beyond prototype stage, and later cars of 11.9hp. However, with the end of the war, government aero-engine orders were cancelled and with repair work dwindling the company was soon insolvent. Convinced of the quality of the Cosmos designs, the Air Ministry encouraged Bristol Aeroplane Co to purchase the company in 1920. Operations were subsequently moved to a former flying school on the edge of Filton Aerodrome and Cosmos Engineering Co subsequently went into liquidation.
- Cosmos Mercury 345hp (1918); Cosmos Jupiter I & II 400hp (1918); Cosmos Lucifer I 80/100hp (1919).
Alec Lumsden, British piston engines and their aircraft (1994), pp.91-3; Bill Gunston, Fedden – The life of Sir Roy Fedden (1999).
‘Cosmos Engineering Co Ltd Makers and Designers of Aero-Engines to the Air Ministry’ 1919 [MUN 5/163/1124/17]; companies court, winding up proceedings, liquidator’s accounts and dissolved company file 1907-32 [J13/8423, BT34/3310/93797, BT31/18130/93797].
Consultant reports: no.104 re 1000hp air-cooled and 1500hp water-cooled engines 1919, no.135 re market analysis for Cosmos air-cooled engines 1920, no.127 re Jupiter crankshaft calculations 1919 [ogi/1/3, 32, ogi/2/3]; arrangement drawings re Jupiter and Hawk (2) 1918-19 [CH bookcase R]; illustrated descriptions of Cosmos 500hp, Jupiter and 300hp Mercury engines 1919 [m historic pamphlets 54]; photograph album re Jupiter engines n.d. [4HP photo albums bay 1].