Gloster Aircraft Company 1917 - 1963

HQ ? - click bottom right 360p & go to 480p.

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. Gloster's test runway became famous for the first flight of Sir Frank Whittle's turbojet in the E.28/39 aircraft.

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, the firm became part of the Avro Whitworth Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation in 1963, and the name Gloster disappeared as Hawker Siddeley rebranded its product line under its own name.

The site at Brockworth 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.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Gloster
• Gloucester
• Meteor
• Javelin
• Gladiator
• Staverton
• Aircraft
• Plane
• Jet
• Whittle

[Josiahsbay]

Very moving. I live a few miles from Hatfield and wonder why such milestones as Comet aren't celebrated as they should be. I'm too young to know anything of Gloster, Handley Page, Bristol, Avro ... sure, we're a nation of great cultural industrialists today ... software, art, music ... but risking lives straight off a drawing board at 750 mph says a lot more about what we once were. Thanks for this.

[fancyflier]

It wasn't Gloucester, it was "Gloster" the caption is spelled wrong on the video. One of the UK's proudest manufacturer's for many years. I bitterly bitterly regret the demise of our aircraft manufacturing industry

[Simona050]

As a child in the 1960s I well remember the Gloster Javellins that flew at RAF CHURCH FENTON air displays. Fantastic aircraft and a phenominal jet engine sound I will never forget. The base has all but closed other than as a field for Tuccano trainers to drop in and out of now. But I still hear that amazing roar of Hunters, Javellins and Scimitars, Phantoms, Vulcans and Victors; The Red Arrows Gnats, and the king of jet fighters The English Electric Lightning. That was a golden age!

[Fatmog]

Wonderful to see this very rare footage. My father was Chief Instructor at GAC in the final years at Brockworth but he lost his job in 1964 when the company closed and we moved to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus where my father continued to keep an eye on Javelins (29 Sqn) until our return to the UK in '68. I have a good selection of GAC photos taken in the training school at Brockworth and some lovely letters from RAF aircrew who rated his training highly

[binaway]

@MegaBrits Unfortunately the British did it to themselves. Canceling the almost completed Vickers V1000 prototype. Forcing Hawker Siddley to to produce a scaled down Trident they knew only British European Airways would buy. The successful 727 was almost duplicate to the original Trident specifications. Failing to properly support the BAC111.

[GRAHAMAUS]

Vaughan Williams always puts me in a certain mood reflecting on the rolling green hills of England and now on these wonderful old aircraft built among those rolling green hills. Was the past better than today? Who knows, but it certainly seems as though we have lost something whose value is only now becoming clear.

[Greenhornet270]

Fantastic Historical Videos; thanks for posting them!!

[Reichsfuhrer1979]

There is a nice Javelin gate guardian at Gloucestershire (Staverton) Airport if you want to see one.

[Gruntol5]

@Gruntol5 : Oops - Sea Hawk

[Gruntol5]

The Gloster Javelin was so rarely seen in Britain and sadly no flying examples were preserved. I can recall once only seeing Javelins at the Farnborough Airshow in the early 1950's and once seeing a group flying at low level in Norfolk. In service they were mainly based in Germany. There are Vampires, Meteors, Sea Vixen, Hunters, Sea Hark still flying, but no Javelin - shame!

[meteort7]

The music is "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" by Vaughan Williams. It was perfectly chosen.

It was great to see the Meteor T7s, they are restoring one at Kemble at the moment and are hoping to get it back to the air next year.

[granskare]

looks like a 'rapide' at the end of the film...we also lost many aircraft makers thru consolidation to wind up with only Boeing and Lockheed but if Airbus gets a share of the tanker contract, they will build 60% of it in USA so 3 companies! Boeing 787 is being build 75% outside of USA so globalization, eh? Nice film here...thanks !