Cosmos Engineering

In 1918 the Anglo-American company Cosmos bought Straker-Squire (also known as Brazil Straker), a car and bus manufacturing firm which had branched out into aircraft engine repair and manufacture. This began by first reconditioning, then substantially redesigning and re-manufacturing Curtiss OX-5 engines. Due to the quality of this work, they were 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. The company was one of the first to be brought under Admiralty control, and Fedden and his draughtsman Leonard Butler designed two engines during the war; the 14-cylinder Mercury and the larger, 9-cylinder Jupiter.

Despite selling off the engineering side of Brazil Straker, which continued to successfully build cars, Cosmos Engineering also produced a small number of Fedden-designed cars. The Cosmos 10.5 of 1919, featured an air-cooled 3-cylinder radial layout 994-cc engine of 16 hp and pressed-steel wobbly-web wheels, and was significantly innovative for its time. Only a limited number were made, and it was followed up by the larger 10.5 CAR which never got beyond prototype stage.