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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0715.PDF
FLIGHT, 27 May 1955 713 MARS TO JAVELIN GLOSTER AIRCRAFT OF FORTY YEARS By H. F. KING, M.B.E. With a special contribution by A. Cdre. A. H. Wheeler, C.B.E. PART I: WAR AND PEACE TO a remarkable degree the story of Gloster technicaldevelopment is a record of British fighter design, thoughit embraces also machines of other classes, notably a brilliant family of racers. We outline the story here to the point where delta-wing Javelins are soon to be issued to R.A.F. squadrons—among them, perhaps, units which years ago were rejoicing in their Grebes, Gauntlets or Gladiators. The beginnings were to be seen in 1915, when the wood-workers of H. H. Martyn and Company, of Cheltenham, Glos, widely known as architectural engineers, and especially for theirwood-panelling in ocean liners, were turning out Maurice Farman spares and propellers for Short seaplanes; from which occupationthey industriously proceeded to fuselages for D.H.4s and 6s. A turning point is marked by Flight of June 14th, 1917, whereinappears the name of the Gloucestershire Aircraft Co., Ltd., newly registered, with a capital of £10,000, as acquiring the businesscarried out by A. W. Martyn. Directors were G. Holt Thomas (chairman), G. A. Peck, A. W. Martyn (managing director), T. O.Williams, D. Longden and H. Burroughes. As the genial Mr. Hugh Burroughes the last-named continues today as an activemember of the Gloster board and—an even higher tribute to his powers—as managing director of the vast Hawker Siddeley Group,of which Gloster Aircraft is a member-company. As the war drew to its end the Cheltenham works turned overlargely to Bristol Fighters, of which some 80 a month were being turned out from the Sunningend works when the armistice atlength arrived. And with it came the slump. The directors, nevertheless, resolved to engage a professional designer with thenecessary technical staff to plan a series of machines which would place the company's name in the forefront of technical advance.To this end they engaged, first as a consultant and later as a full-time member of the staff, Mr. H. P. Folland, who had beenlargely responsible at Farnborough for such remarkable aircraft as the S.E.4, S.E.5 and F.E.2B. Later, as chief engineer anddesigner to the British Nieuport Co., Ltd., he had designed the B.N.I and Nighthawk fighters and the London triplane bomber.To Mr. Folland the success of Gloster fighters in the period 1921-37 must be largely ascribed. From the basic Nighthawk,which the company was already producing in quantity for the British Government, he evolved first the Mars I, or Bamel—atruly Lion-hearted racer—and a series of fighters, variously fitted with the Bentley B.R.2 rotary or the Bristol Jupiter and ArmstrongSiddeley Jaguar static radial engines. These machines were sup- plied in fair quantities to the Japanese, Greek and British Govern-ments. Additionally, there were contracts for the construction of D.H.9a wings and for the overhaul and reconditioning of 9a andParnall Panther airframes. At 163.3 m.p.h. "Jimmic" James brought the Mars I homevictorious in the Aerial Derby of 1921, a success it was to repeat in 1922 (176 m.p.h.) and again in 1923 (192.4 m.p.h.). In the courseof its career, with James, or "Larry" Carter, as pilot, this "half- pint" biplane secured unofficial records for speed and rate ofclimb, and was finally acquired by the Air Ministry. It was the progenitor of Gloster's beautiful Schneider racers of later years.Always an advocate of the biplane, Mr. Folland began to investigate special wing sections and layouts, seeking to reconcileperformance and useful load to a higher degree than hitherto. The combination adopted consisted of a high-lift top wing witha medium-lift bottom wing, which, although providing lift for take-off, contributed very little at high speeds. Consequently itsdrag was low. Something approaching monoplane efficiency was achieved, though with a much reduced span. The first machine to incorporate the new arrangement was theGrouse, a rotary-engined two-seater which was developed, with Jaguar engine, into the s-agle-seat Grebe, adopted as a standardR.A.F. fighter in 1923. In that year, too, the Gannet (gross weight 460 lb, wing span 18ft) was built for the Daily Mail Light 'Plane Trials at Lympne.The Gloster II, a Lion-engined racing seaplane constructed for the 1924 Schneider race, was lost in an accident while being flownat Felixstowe by Capt. Hubert Broad. Italy had withdrawn her entries and America was left alone in the contest; but, rather than claim a fly-over, she consented to call the race off until 1925. Inthat year the race was at Baltimore. Broad, in a Gloster III, was the sole British participant, and he came in second. Successor to the Grebe in production for the R.A.F. was theJupiter-engined Gamecock, one of the most popular aerobatic machines ever to see service and one which was famed for itssuccesses in the Sassoon Cup races. A closely related type was the Gorcock, first of the Glosterfighters to have a water-cooled engine—the Napier Lion. Three were built, one of which was Gloster's first all-metal aircraft, andthere were two examples of a similar machine known as the Guan, with experimental turbo-supercharged Lions. During 1926 the company was beginning to occupy new worksat Brockworth Aerodrome (a move which culminated in complete transference in 1929), and in November 1926 it changed its nameto the Gloster Aircraft Co., Ltd. That year was significant in other ways, for it saw the company busy with the development ofall-metal construction and with the building of a new type of racing seaplane—the Gloster IV—for the 1927 Schneider Trophy race. Flown over the Lido, near Venice, the 1927 Schneider racewas an Anglo-Italian contest, and Britain had no fewer than six racing seaplanes on hand—three Supermarine S.5s, the GlosterIVA and IVB, and the Short Crusader. In the blue-and-bronze IVB, F/L. Kinkead put up the remarkable lap speed of 289m.p.h., but after five laps was forced to retire—and only in the nick of time, as we subsequently relate. On the military side, the company was successful in securingbusiness from Japan with its Gambet fleet fighter, though in this country the all-metal Goldfinch was ousted by Bristol's Bulldog. Gloster's first bombers were the Goral (built for the general-purpose competition which was won by the Wapiti) and the private-venture Goring. Neither was built in quantity and atten-tion was never far distracted from single-seat fighters: by 1929 two wholly new designs, the Gnatsnapper fleet fighter and theS.S.18 intercepter, had been realized. For the 1929 Schneider race the company produced its firstmonoplane—for surprising reasons, as will later be explained. This was the Gloster VI, one of the most beautiful aeroplanesever built and which achieved a record of 336.31 m.p.h. More than most firms, Glosters appreciated the value of research,and in 1929 we find them experimenting with a Breda monoplane having a special variable-camber wing. This was flown first byCapt. R. H. Stocken and later by Capt. Howard Saint, chief test pilot from 1926 until 1933. Another private venture was a helicopter, described by Mr. A. K.Laverton, now Gloster's works engineer, as looking like a tin shed with horizontal paddle wheels on top. Although this contraptionmanaged to "heave itself into the air" it was obviously under- powered, and with a new engine it "rose . . . rather unsteadily,finally rolling over on one side, when one of the rotors caught in an overhead roof girder, and the machine was left suspended froma tangle of rotor and shafting." To the designs of Mr. H. J. Stieger, Glosters built, in 1929,the Monospar twin-engined cabin monoplane, and a few months later constructed a wing on the Monospar principle for the AirMinistry's Fokker F.VII/3m. A year or two later, de Havillands, who had decided to concentrate solely on civil aircraft, handed Pilot and designer "Larry" Carter and H. P. Folland.
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