Gloster Aircraft Company (Jump to photos)
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.
Brief history
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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster
