Gloster Aircraft Company
| Gloster Aircraft Company | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1917 (as Gloucestershire Aircraft) |
| resolution | 1961 |
| Seat | Hucclecote , UK |
| Branch | Aviation industry |
The Gloster Aircraft Company , originally Gloucestershire Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer . The company, founded in 1917, merged with Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft to form Whitworth Gloster Ltd. in 1961 . together.
It became known through the development of the first British jet aircraft , the Gloster E.28 / 39 and the Gloster Meteor .
history
Early years
During the First World War , the aircraft manufacturer Airco founded Gloucestershire Aircraft Co. in Cheltenham on June 5, 1917 . Initially, machines were produced under license for the companies Airco, Nieuport and Bristol Aircraft Company with an output of 45 machines per week until the end of the war.
Since the nearest airfield was in Hucclecote ( Gloucestershire ) seven miles away , the planes had to be transported there attached to a truck. Since the wheel bearings of the machines were not designed for these taxiways, they regularly ran hot. It is said that the employees initially urinated on the axles to cool the wheel bearings. Later, water containers were brought along for this purpose. In 1928, production was finally relocated to Hucclecote.
In 1921 Henry Phillip Folland was hired as chief designer. Under his leadership, the company wanted to present itself as a manufacturer of highly developed aircraft in order to impress the British Aviation Department with successful racing aircraft and to win orders for military aircraft. The machines equipped with floats should achieve success in the Schneider Trophy races . However, the racing aircraft were only moderately successful. As a result, Folland developed improved wings for the manufacturer's biplanes that were still being produced .
The Gloucestershire Aircraft redesigned models were considered technically obsolete, also wore them because of the requirements of the Air Ministry often idiosyncratic names, like those of rare birds (eg. B. Grebe = grebes or dabchick). A small success was achieved with the grebe . Almost 100 machines were delivered from her to the RAF . You were in service with the British Air Force from 1924 to 1929.
In 1926, the name of the company, which was almost unpronounceable for many foreign customers, was changed to Gloster Aircraft Co. In 1927 Gloster took over a supplier, the Steel Wing Company.
Takeover by Hawker
Harry P. Folland left the company in 1934. In the same year Gloster was taken over by Hawker Aircraft , but Gloster retained a certain degree of independence and continued to operate as the so-called Gloster Division within the Hawker-Siddeley Group.
Another commercially successful design followed in 1935, the Gloster Gladiator . This biplane fighter was in service in many units of the British Air Force from 1937 until it was replaced by the Supermarine Spitfire . It has been successfully exported to a large number of other countries.
Gloster made a name for itself through developments in the field of jet-powered aircraft . In 1938 Gloster designed the Gloster E.28 / 39, the airframe for the gas turbine developed by Frank Whittle and the first jet fighter of the British Air Force, the twin- engine Gloster Meteor . It had its first flight in 1943 and still flew combat missions towards the end of the Second World War in 1944/45.
The RAF's first jet-powered fighter with delta wings , the Javelin , was also a Gloster development. This aircraft was ready for series production in July 1954 and was the last model produced under the Gloster name. 1961 the companies Armstrong Whitworth and Gloster were merged and now formed the Whitworth-Gloster division of the Hawker-Siddeley Group.
