The author, whose lifetime
involvement with aviation began with an engineering apprenticeship with the Gloster
Aircraft Company, has written a delightful history of this by now sadly defunct firm. The
Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Ltd began life on 5 June 1917. Its predecessor, Aircraft
Manufacturing Co, had very successfully manufactured aircraft components and spares, and
were licenced to sell other manufacturers’ aircraft. With the outbreak of WW1, things
hotted up and when an order was received for 250 DH2 single seater scout aircraft the
company’s facilities could not cope. So work was sub-contracted, and it seemed
logical to bind the sub-contractors into a new, joint company, and move all the production
to an available site in Cheltenham. One of the disadvantages of the move was that there
was no way of test flying anything nearer than an Aircraft Acceptance Park seven miles
away at Hucclecote, the aircraft being towed there by a Ford lorry. It is recorded that
the first time this long journey was attempted non-stop, the wheel bearings in the
undercarriage overheated, as they were designed for short duration taxiing. To cool the
offending component, the men urinated on the stub axle! Thereafter a can of water was
carried, and a regulation stop was made at The Oddfellows Inn, Shurdington for en route
refreshment!
By 1918 the company was capable of producing 45 aircraft a week, but
the end of the war brought a halt to orders and the company began to struggle. They
decided to promote themselves as builders of high performance aircraft to attract the
attention of the Air Ministry, and designed (under the aegis of Harry Folland) racing
craft for the various competitions that were very popular at the time. None of the designs
quite succeeded, and Folland turned to developing wings with new aerofoil sections to
improve the performance and efficiency of biplanes. My feeling is that the company
persevered too long with both biplanes and wooden construction, and that the various
projects suggested suffered from the most awful names — the
Gamecock (the RAF’s last wooden biplane fighter) was followed by the Gorcock, the
Guan, the Goral and the Goring, not to mention the Gambet and the Gnatsnapper! However,
there were some successes, the Grebe became the first aeroplanes to be built in quantity
by the company for the RAF, and were in front line service from 1924 to 1929.
The Company’s name proved unpronounceable to overseas buyers, so
in 1926 it was changed from ‘Gloucestershire’ to ‘Gloster’, which is
what they had been calling their racing aircraft anyway. By then the company was involved
with the Schneider Trophy races, but never came better than second.
As well as aircraft, the company was at the cutting edge of new
technology regarding variable pitch propellers and undercarriages Rotol and Dowty being
very closely associated.
The great breakthrough was achieved with the winning, against
competition from all the big names like Armstrong Whitworth, Blackburn, Boulton &
Paul, Bristol, Hawker, Supermarine and Westland of the contract to build what was to be
the last RAF biplane fighter, the Gladiator. Its feats have made it immortal, although it
is sobering to consider what would have happened if WW2 had started a year earlier, and
the Gladiator had been the front line RAF fighter!
After that the company built the world’s first jet aircraft, and
then the Meteor, the only jet to go into service with the RAF in WW2, followed by the
Javelin in nine different versions. Sadly, by 1958, it became clear that Gloster
Aircraft’s days as a military aircraft manufacturer were numbered. The company was
now part of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and production gradually switched to interesting
things like automatic vending machines and agricultural forage harvesters. A sad end for
one of Britain’s great aviation names.
This slim volume left me wanting to know more about the various people
involved, although the coverage of products is first class. There are some magnificent
photographs both old and new, and the book is a worthy memorial, and a thoroughly good
read.
