Bristol Racer

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The Bristol Type 72 Racer was a British single‑seat racing airplane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1922 to show off the Bristol Jupiter engine. It was designed by Wilfrid Thomas Reid with Roy Fedden after Frank Barnwell left the company.

One aircraft was built, registered G-EBDR, and it first flew in July 1922 with pilot Cyril Uwins. The plane was a mid‑wing monoplane with retractable landing gear. The 480 hp Bristol Jupiter IV radial engine was completely enclosed inside the fuselage, with a complex system of ducts to cool the cylinders. A large wooden spinner sat at the nose. The fuselage was built around two circular steel frames, and the wings were cantilevered with no external bracing wires and had long ailerons that used about 20% of the wing’s chord. The undercarriage was operated by a hand crank and chain.

During test flights, control issues appeared due to wing twist from the large ailerons. Bracing wires were added after the first flight. On the second flight, the spinner disintegrated after takeoff, damaging the wing cover and limiting the flight to a single circuit; the spinner had been painted, adding weight. A third flight showed the aileron problem again. A device using a cam to move a small control surface during joystick movement was tried, but it worked only on the ground and failed in flight, causing loss of lateral control. After removing the cam and reducing the aileron area to about 40% of its original size, a new static spinner was fitted, and three more flights were made, with the last two showing the undercarriage functioning.

Although the Type 72 Racer was entered for the 1922 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race with racing number 10 on the tail, it was not in good condition to compete. It was considered for use as an engine testbed, but its handling remained unsuitable, and it was scrapped in 1924.