Gloster Aircraft Company
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Gloster Aircraft Company logo |
The
Gloster Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer formed in
1917 as the
Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Limited. In
1926 the name of the company was abbreviated to
Gloster because customers outside of the
United Kingdom found the original name too difficult to pronounce. The company produced the
Gloster Grebe;
Gloster Gladiator;
Hawker Hurricane;
Hawker Typhoon;
Gloster Meteor and
Gloster Javelin and its test runway became famous for the first flight of Sir
Frank Whittle's
turbo-jet aircraft.
The
Gloster Aircraft Company was formed in
1917 as the
Gloucestershire Aircraft Company. The company acquired the aircraft business previously carried out by
H H Martyn with a 50% share, and the
Aircraft Manufacturing Company the other 50%. The company rented what was the Sunningend works of
H H Martyn and Company Limited in
Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire. As orders for aircraft increased other companies in the Gloucester and Cheltenham district were contracted with work. Where any flying was involved the aircraft were moved to an Air Board aircraft acceptance park at
Hucclecote seven miles away by motor transport. Although Huccelcote aerodrome was used by the company it had no hangars until 1921 when it rented part of hangar from the Air Board.
With the move to metal construction the Sunningend factory was no longer suitable, and in
1928 the company (now named the
Gloster Aircraft Company Limited) bought the aerodrome at Hucclecote with all the hangars and office accommodation.
Hucclecote was the second in a series of villages located along an old
Roman Road following a more-or-less straight line to the inland port city of
Gloucester.
1934 Amalgamation
In
1934 the company was taken over by
Hawker Aircraft Limited, though still producing aircraft under its own name. In that same year the company produced the famous
Gloster Gladiator biplane.
1939-1945 WWII production
In
1939 the company built 1,000
Hawker Hurricanes in the first 12 months of
World War II and it delivered its last of 2,750 Hurricanes in
1942. Production was then switched to building 3,330
Hawker Typhoons for the
Royal Air Force.
1941 Turbo-jet
On
April 8,
1941 the first test flight of the
Gloster E.28/39 with a turbo-jet engine invented by Sir
Frank Whittle took off from the companies airfield at Hucclecote. This formed the basis for the
Gloster Meteor, the only jet to be used by the
Allied Forces during World War II.
1945 World Record
In
1945 a Gloster F-4 Meteor prototype, stripped of armaments, gained a
World Speed Record of 606 mph. It was eventually put into service by 12 nations.
In
1952 the two seat,
delta-winged Gloster Javelin was developed as an all weather fighter that could fly above 50,000 feet at almost the speed of sound. This modern aircraft proved to be too heavy to take off from the short airfield in Hucclecote, and was instead fitted out to the bare minimum and given a very small fuel load. It was then flown in a short hop to RAF Moreton Valence 3 miles to the South, where the aircraft would be completed. Parts of this old airfield can still be seen as you drive on the M5 motorway just South of Junction 12. The motorway was constructed parallel to the runway and at either end, large concrete sections of taxiway can be seen angling off the carriageway. It was this shortcoming of the facilities, along with the rationalisation of the British aircraft industry, that would lead to the demise of the Gloster Aircraft Company.
1960s demise
In 1961 the company was merged with
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Limited to form
Whitworth Gloster Aircraft Limited. Following another re-organisation by the owners the
Hawker Siddeley Group, the firm became part of the Avro Whitworth Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation in 1963 and the name
Gloster disappeared.
The site at Hucclecote was sold in
1964. The runway, while still visible from the air, has been partially obstructed by buildings on what is now the Gloucester Trading Estate. Many of the firms based on the estate are housed in former hangars.
*1921
Gloster Mars *1923
Gloster Grebe*1925
Gloster Gamecock*1934
Gloster Gauntlet*1934
Gloster Gladiator*1937
Gloster F.5/34 monoplane fighter prototype
*1939
Gloster F.9/37 twin engineed heavy fighter prototype
*1941
Gloster E.28/39 first British jet engineed aircraft
*1944
Gloster Meteor *1948
Gloster E.1/44*1954
Gloster Javelin* "Gloster Aircraft since 1917" by Derek N James - Putnam 1987 ISBN 0851778070
:*
History of the Gloster Aircraft Company at Brockworth
