Gloster Aircraft
by Russell Grant
1921 Gloster Mars – 1922 Gloster Sparrowhawk - 1923 Gloster Grebe - 1923 Gloster Grouse - 1925 Gloster Gamecock - 1934 Gloster Gauntlet - 1934 Gloster Gladiator - 1937 Gloster F.5/34 monoplane fighter prototype - 1939 Gloster F.9/37 twin-engined heavy fighter prototype - 1941 Gloster E.28/39 first British jet engineered aircraft - 1944 Gloster Meteor - 1948 Gloster E.1/44 - 1954 Gloster Javelin and the Mars, Gannet, Gambet, Gorcock, Guan, Goral and Gnatsnapper. Gloster also built the Hawker Henley light bomber in 1939 plus 1,000 Hurricanes in the first 12 months of WWII. The last of the 2,750 Hurricanes built at Brockworth were delivered to the RAF in March 1942. In 1942, production started on 3,330 Typhoons for the RAF. This part of Britain deserves a medal.
Think of Gloster aeroplanes and I bet you automatically see the Gloster Gladiator. These plucky little aircraft captured the imagination of almost everyone with their derring-do during World War II. There is something so Boy's Own about the RAF's last combative bi-plane design, taking gingerly to the air in a modern war when sexy fighter planes like the Hurricane and Spitfire were beating a path to the German's door which themselves soon to be out-stripped by jet planes doing much of what they did more quickly!
Not so long ago I watched a TV documentary and discovered that Gloucester , Hucclecote and Brockworth were at the heart of some of the most ingenious aviation design and progress than I realised. This part of Britain pioneered the jet engine with its test runway famous for the first flight of a jet plane.
The Gloster Aircraft Company was founded in 1915 as the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Limited . The company acquired a 50 per cent stake of its component supplier HH Martyn aircraft business and Aircraft Manufacturing Company the other half. The company rented what was the Sunningend works of H H Martyn . By 1917, the GAC was producing large numbers of fuselage and spares; this is when the historic Belfast Hangars were constructed. As orders for aircraft increased work was subcontracted out locally.
When any flying was scheduled planes were moved seven miles by road to the Air Board aircraft acceptance park at Hucclecote . By the end of World War I, the company was able to produce 45 complete aircraft a week. With the changeover to metal construction, the Sunningend factory was no longer suitable and in 1928, the company – which since 1926 officially named the Gloster Aircraft Company Limited as overseas clients could not get their tongue round its name - bought the aerodrome at Hucclecote, complete with hangars and offices.
The Chief Designer of the Gloster Aircraft Company, H.P. Folland originally from the old Nieuport Company, helped produce the high-speed, single-seat bi-plane the Bamel in 1921. By 1922, it held the world air-speed record set at 212.15-mph.
In 1922, GAC received its first international order: 50 Sparrowhawks for the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The first Gloster monoplane - the Gloster VI called the “Golden Arrow” broke the World speed record at 336.31mph on September 10th 1929. With global recession in the early 1930s, the Company diversified and manufactured everything from fish-fryers, to steel milk churns as well as metal roll-up shop fronts and motor car bodies.
In September 1933, the SS19 was selected to produce the Gloster Gauntlet for the RAF. Folland's team therefore began to examine possible further refinements to the Gauntlet design. In May 1934, Gloster Aircraft was brought by Hawker Aircraft Limited, and this introduced substantial financial capital and aircraft structures knowledge. The maiden flight took place on September 12 th 1934. On 1 July 1935 the name Gladiator was officially announced and an initial contract for 23 aircraft placed. The Gloster Gladiator was to become the last British biplane fighter. In September 1935 a second order for 180 aircraft was agreed. The first export contract was to Latvia on 27 May 1937.
At the end of 1937 the Royal Navy began to show interest in a shipboard version of the Gladiator II as a replacement for the Hawker Nimrod. The Sea Gladiator was the variant adopted by the Fleet Air Arm. 22 Gladiator MKII`s built at Brockworth and enrolled December 1938. The Sea Gladiator saw action with Fleet Air Arm squadrons from 1938, but first embarked aboard HMS Courageous with 801 Squadron in March 1939 as well as 802 Squadron of the FAA aboard HMS Glorious and 804 Squadron attached to HMS Furious but operating from Hatston, Orkney, both saw action off the coast of Norway . Carrier-based Sea Gladiators were more successful, since their slower speed made them more suitable for such marine operations and they were less likely to face more modern fighter opposition.
At the beginning of the war the Gloster Gladiators serving with the FAA were primarily used as carrier-borne fighters. However, with their replacement by faster and more modern fighters they were found excellent for useful duties such as communications, liaison and meteorological reconnaissance aircraft.
The Gladiator was used during WWII in theatres where the RAF or FAA had no other means of air combat. The Gladiator took part in the Norwegian campaign in 1940, and was victorious in 1940-41 during the first campaigns in the Mediterranean; it was particularly active in the defence of Crete in May 1941.
But it was on the island of Malta where the Gladiator became legendary. The Royal Navy had stored a number of Sea Gladiators in crates to re-supply carrier squadrons as required. There was a stock of 18 aircraft remaining at Malta after HMS Glorious was sunk. Many aircraft were shipped in crates, one of the reasons why pilots used to call them 'old crates'.
In May 1940, four Sea Gladiators were assembled by the RAF and test flown. For 10 days from June 11 th to 21 st , the Sea Gladiators represented the tiny island's sole air defence the Italians staged only three air raids on the island during this period before Hurricanes were sent as relief. Due to a shortage of ammunition, the Sea Gladiators were used to break up bomber formations, rather than pick off individual targets.
Months later, a Maltese newspaper published a report on the Sea Gladiators which ensured that the names Faith , Hope and Charity (although never actually applied to the aircraft) entered Maltese history and aviation legend. They were part of the Hal Far Fighter Flight. Sea Gladiator N5520 joined in April 1940. She was quick to defend Malta , and piloted by Flt Lt JL Waters RAF shot down and destroyed an Italian S.79 on 11 June 1940, and the next day on 12 June 1940 destroyed another S.79. She was renamed "Faith" between October 1941 and January 1942. Her fuselage has been preserved for posterity by the grateful Maltese and can be seen to this day.
"Hope". Sea Gladiator N5531 was renamed "Hope on 19 April 1940 but was destroyed in an air raid on 4 February 1941. Sea Gladiator N5519 ‘G6A' of 802 Squadron from June-September 1939, was renamed 'Charity' on 19 April 1940. She was involved in defending Malta over the critical 1940 period but was shot down on 29 July 1940 and her pilot F/O PW Hartley RAF was badly burned.
The Gloster Gladiator was, as the famous test-pilot Captain Eric M. Brown said ‘undoubtedly one of the greatest biplane fighter ever built, but, appearing almost simultaneously with the first of the new breed of heavily armed monoplane fighters and bombers, it was pitched into a combat era where it was outgunned and outperformed, though never out-manoeuvred'.
When Germany invaded Norway on April 9 th 1940 No. 263 Squadron was flown to Norway to assist British forces against a German invasion. Gladiators based at Fornebu Airport , consisting of seven operational biplanes, managed to shoot down a total of five German aircraft with only one Gladiator being shot down. Operations from the frozen Lake Lesjaskag ended when Luftwaffe bombers destroyed the aircraft on the ground. Replacement Gladiators accompanied the Squadron when it was deployed to Narvik in the far north. They fought continuously until 7 June, claiming 26 confirmed victories, before the survivors landed on HMS Glorious for the voyage home. The carrier was subsequently attacked by the German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and sunk.
Two Gladiator squadrons, 607 and 615, headed to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939. In just ten days of hard fighting following the opening of the German assault on May 10th 1940, they were destroyed. In a desperate attempt to provide fighter cover for the evacuation of Dunkirk , a detachment of Gladiators known as 'G' Flight was formed at RAF Manston in late May. Then when the Battle of Britain was being fought only two home-based units used the Gladiator operationally.
When Italy entered the war in June 1940, Gladiators were serving with No.33 and 80 Squadrons in Egypt , and with No.94 Squadron in Aden . The Gladiator proved an even match for the Fiat CR.42 and was successful in helping repel the Italian invasion of Egypt and defeat Italian forces in East Africa .
Gladiators participated in the Greek campaign, achieving good results against the Regia Aeronautica. Greek Gladiators destroyed many Italian aircraft in 1940 and 1941, as well as some German aircraft during the 1941 Invasion but outclassed once the Luftwaffe joined the battle.
In 1941, Gladiators from No.94 Squadron participated in the 'Battle of Habbaniyah' against Iraqi rebels besieging the RAF training base. Iraqi Gladiators were flown in sorties against British and Indian forces in 1941. The Iraqis used them until 1949 for ground attack missions against the Kurds. Gladiators continued to serve in the Western Desert throughout 1941, but finally disappeared from front line service in January 1942.
Irish Gladiators shot down several British barrage balloons that had broken from their moorings. Belgian Gladiators suffered heavy losses to the Germans in 1940.
The first export aircraft to see combat were those of the Chinese Government, which had acquired 36 Gladiator Mk I's for use against the invading Japanese. Despite numerous accidents by inexperienced pilots, the survivors flew with some success in the defence of Siu-Chow during 1938. In the Far East , the Gladiator fared little better against Japanese aircraft. It played a part in the short-lived defence of Singapore .
In Swedish service the Gladiator I was designated J 8, and the Gladiator II designated J 8A. Some of these served with Flygflottilj 19, the volunteer unit that flew alongside the Finnish Air Force in the Winter War of 1939-40. The Swedish unit was in action for 62 days, destroying six Russian bombers and six fighters for the loss of three Gladiators - one due to an accident.
Many RAF Gladiators were gifted to Allied forces including Greece , South Africa and Egypt . The Royal Egyptian Air Force aircraft remained airworthy until shortly after the end of the war, whilst Portugal retained its Gladiators for advanced pilot training until 1953 before scrapping them.
L8032 is the only airworthy Gloster Gladiator in the world and was the last Gladiator I to come off the production line. Built by the Gloster Aircraft Company in 1937 and was first posted to No 2 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit and used to assist in training anti-aircraft gunners. After the war, L8032 was entered in a few races and later used as a civil aircraft before being returned to the Gloster Aircraft Company on 23 February, 1948, exactly eleven years after the first Mk I made its way to 72 Squadron. Rebuilt, refitted with 303 Browning machine guns and repainted with RAF markings, L8032 it can be seen along with t he sole surviving airworthy Gladiator maintained and preserved by the Shuttleworth Trust at Old Warden, Bedfordshire.
Gloster's private venture development of the already highly refined Gauntlet brought the biplane fighter concept to the peak of technical perfection. In many air arms, it smoothed the transition to advanced monoplane fighters, and in confronting aircraft of its own era it performed well, but when pitted against modern combat aircraft its obsolescent design was cruelly exposed. The skill and determination of its pilots however, has allowed the Gladiator to acquire an heroic status that could have easily have become tragic.
King George VI and his devoted wife, Queen Elizabeth knew that their main job during the Second World War was to tour the country and keep the British bulldog spirit in full menacing growl! Their Majesties arrived at Gloucester in February 1940 and headed for Hucclecote to see with their own eyes construction of fighter aircraft. It was in the nick of time as by the September of the same year the Battle of Britain was in full tilt with aerial attacks and dog-fights, and helped by a few odd decisions from Berlin, showed the true worth of the machines and pilots as being in a class of their own to overcome the Goering's Luftwaffe.
On 8 April 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 company's airfield at Hucclecote. This formed the basis for the Gloster Meteor , the only jet used by the Allied Forces during World War II. The Gloster Meteor was the first operational Allied jet fighter aircraft of World War II first flying with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1943, the Meteor commenced operations in mid-1944, only some weeks later than the world's first operational jet, the German Messerschmitt Me 262 .
In 1945, a Gloster F.4 Meteor prototype, stripped of armament, gained a World Speed Record of 606 mph with Group Captain H. Wilson at the controls. In early 1946, another F.4 prototype set a world air speed record of 616 mph, Group Captain "Teddy" Donaldson flying the highly modified Meteor, nicknamed "Yellow Peril." Meteors remained in service with several air forces for many years and saw action with the Royal Australian Air Force in the Korean War .
Eventually, Gloster Meteors in fighter, trainer and night fighter versions were in operational use by 12 nations.
It was realised that the British Isles could be threatened by bombers flying at high altitudes and dropping their bombs through cloud cover guided by means of radar. As a result, the Javelin was developed as a two-seater all-weather fighter, which could fly faster than the speed of sound and reach altitudes above 50,000 feet. With its characteristic delta shape the Javelin was awarded super-priority production in July 1952.
This modern aircraft was too heavy to take off from the short airfield in Hucclecote, and so was kitted out to the bare minimum and a very small fuel load. It was then flown in a short hop to RAF Moreton Valence three 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.
In 1961, the company was merged with Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Limited to form Whitworth Gloster Aircraft Limited. Due to a lack of further orders from the Her Majesty's Government, the Gloster Aircraft Company closed in 1962.
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 on it are based in the former hangars.
What a story.
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