Gloster

The Gloster Aircraft Company, Limited, known locally as GAC, was a British aircraft manufacturer. The company produced a famous lineage of fighters for the Royal Air Force (RAF): the Grebe, Gladiator, Meteor and Javelin. It also produced the Hawker Hurricane and Hawker Typhoon for the parent company Hawker Siddeley. Gloster produced the first British gas turbine-powered aircraft: the E.28/39 and the first British (and only gas-turbine-powered Allied aircraft to see service in World War II) production jet fighter in the Meteor.

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 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 (11 km) away by motor transport. Although Hucclecote aerodrome was used by the company it had no hangars until 1921 when it rented part of a hangar from the Air Board.
When the British aircraft manufacturer Nieuport & General closed down in 1920, the services of its chief designer, Henry Folland were hired by Gloster, who also acquired the rights for the Nieuport Nighthawk fighter and unbuilt aircraft components.
In 1926, the name of the company was abbreviated to the Gloster Aircraft Company because customers outside of the United Kingdom found the original name too difficult to pronounce. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Aircraft

Gloster Gladiator

Click for Gloster Gladiator sound recordings page

The Gloster Gladiator (or Gloster SS.37) was a British-built biplane fighter, used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy (as the Sea Gladiator variant) and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. It was the RAF's last biplane fighter aircraft and was rendered obsolete by newer monoplane designs even as it was being introduced. Though often pitted against more formidable foes during the early days of the Second World War, it acquitted itself reasonably well in combat.

It first flew in September 1934. On 3 April 1935, the Royal Air Force commenced operational evaluations. Three months later, a first order was placed for 23 machines, followed by an order of 186 in September. The first version, the Mk I, was delivered from July 1936, becoming operational in January 1937. The Mk II soon followed, with a different engine and a metal propeller with three fixed blades instead of the former two-bladed wooden one.

It was to be the last British biplane fighter and their first fighter with an enclosed cockpit. The Gladiator had a top speed of around 257 mph (414 km/h) yet, even as it was introduced, the design was being eclipsed by new-generation monoplane fighters, such as the RAF's new Hurricane and Spitfire, and the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt Bf 109.

A total of 747 airframes were built (483 RAF, 98 RN; 216 exported to 13 countries, some of them from the total allotted to the RAF). Gladiators were sold to Belgium, China, Egypt, Finland, Free France, Greece, Iraq, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, South Africa and Sweden.

Gloster Gladiator Engine Run Down

Close up sound recording of a Gloster Gladiator running down its engine after an energetic display.

Powered by a single Bristol Mercury IX radial engine, 850 hp (630 kW)

Recorded August 2008.

Gloster Gladiator, May 2009

The Shuttleworth Collection's Gloster Gladiator during an air display.