Gloster Aircraft Company

The Gloster Aircraft Company was formed at Brockworth ( Gloucester ) in 1915 as the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company. 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 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 at Brockworth, in 1915 as the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company. Brockworth was the third 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, and because of the land availability the company was able to build its own runway to test its aircraft.

1934 Amalgamation

In 1934 the company was amalgamated with Hawker Aircraft Ltd. 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 the 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 E28/39 with a turbo-jet engine invented by Sir Frank Whittle took off from company airfield at Brockworth. 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 it gained a World Speed Record of 606 mph and 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.

1962 demise

Gloster Aircraft Company closed in 1962.

References

External sources

:*History of the Gloster Aircraft Company at Brockworth

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