Avions Gloster : livres - histoire, modèles et technique

The Gloster Aircraft Company had its foundation in 1917 and in 1934 the company was taken over by Hawker Aircraft, though it continued to produce aircraft under its own name. In that same year the company produced the famous Gladiator biplane.

Having no modern designs of its own in production, Gloster undertook manufacture for the parent company Hawker. During the Second World War it built more than 6,000 Hurricanes and Typhoons.

The Gloster Meteor was the first operational Allied jet fighter aircraft of the Second World War, commencing operations in mid-1944, only some weeks later than the world's first operational jet, the German Messerschmitt Me 262. In 1945 a Meteor gained a World Airspeed Record of 606 mph.
Meteors remained in service with several air forces and saw action in the Korean War.
In 1952, the two seat, delta winged Gloster Javelin was developed as an all-weather fighter that could fly above 50,000 feet.

In 1961, the company was merged with Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Limited to form Whitworth Gloster Aircraft Limited. Following re-organisation, the firm became part of the Avro Whitworth Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation in 1963, and the name Gloster disappeared.

This well-illustrated book describes the story of Gloster and its aircraft.

Today it is difficult to imagine that the parishes of Hucclecote and Brockworth once were home to one of Britain's major manufacturers. Gloster Aircraft Company, with its forebears H.H. Martyn & Company and Gloucestershire Aircraft Company, produced some 10,000 aeroplanes between 1917 and 1963.
It also provided employment for countless thousands of local people. During World War II alone it employed 14,000 men and women working at the main factory and at 40 sites dispersed in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and other more distant parts of Gloucestershire.

Gloster designed a number of outstanding fighter aircraft which were built in large numbers; it also produced many prototypes which failed to win orders and very many more projects which never left the drawing board.
By chance the company was chosen to design and build Britain's first jet aircraft and followed by building 4,000 jet fighters for the Royal Air Force and a dozen air forces around the world.

Gloster finally became the first victim of a programme of political and economic stringency which has since decimated British aircraft manufacturing companies. This album portrays some of those people who worked 'up at the 'drome for GAC' and the works of their hands.

This compilation of British aviation industry advertisements comprises the listings for Gloster Aircraft from 1921 to 1959. It is one of a series of compilations providing a unique source of reference for researchers, enthusiasts and anyone interested in the timelines of British aviation industry companies.

The advertisement images are reproduced at one per page and without any accompanying narrative. Each item includes the source title and original date of publication.

The Gloster Gauntlet was a British single-seat biplane fighter of the RAF, designed and built by the Gloster Aircraft Company in the 1930s. It was the last RAF fighter to have an open cockpit and its penultimate biplane fighter in service. It was also Britain's most successful and popular inter-war fighter aircraft.

This book offers a complete and comprehensive history of the development and service of the plane, plus scale plans, photographs and drawings from pre-war technical manuals, scale plans, rare b+w period photographs, superb colour illustrations of camouflage and markings and walk-around colour photographs of the sole surviving examples. A rarely documented aspect of pre-World War II aviation history.

Revised and expanded version of the material published in Bristol Bulldog & Gloster Gauntlet (August 2005, ISBN 9788389450043).

The Gloster Gladiator was the very last biplane fighter to enter service with the RAF. Yet, despite being one of the fastest biplanes ever built, it was already obsolete upon its introduction to service in January 1937. Nonetheless, in the first eighteen months of WW2, it garnered many combat plaudits in the skies over the frozen Arctic, the sun-kissed Mediterranean, and the arid deserts of Africa.
In Britain, it provided crucial defense of the RN Fleet anchored at Scapa Flow, and was among the first aircraft sent to France to aid the BEF. Adopted early-on by the FAA and renamed Sea Gladiator, for a time this navalized version represented the nearest thing the service had to a modern fighter as it struggled toward parity with its Axis opponents.

This book tells the complete story. The text covers not only the type?s remarkable operational history, but also that of Gloster?s journey to its production. Also examined are the Gladiator?s design and construction, and its subsequent technical development. Second-line duties and service with foreign air forces are also briefly covered.
Supporting lavish artwork and 3-D exploded views vividly bring the aircraft to life, making it an ideal reference work for the modeler.

Both the Gloster Gladiator and the Fiat CR.42 Falco represented the peak in the development of the biplane fighter, which could trace its lineage back to World War I. However, by the time both aircraft entered service in the late 1930s, they were already obsolete. Nevertheless, they gave sterling service on all fronts in the Mediterranean and Africa in 1940-41.

Indeed, the CR.42 was the Regia Aeronautica's staple fighter in both North and East Africa, Greece and over Malta in 1940-41, during which time its pilots routinely fought British and Commonwealth squadrons equipped in the main with Gladiator biplanes.
Some bitter dogfights were fought between these two types as the Allies attempted to gain control of the skies over North Africa, Greece and East Africa. Both types were flown in the main by highly experienced pre-war pilots, and this in turn made for some closely fought engagements.

The first known combat between the CR.42 and the Gladiator took place on 14 June 1940 over North Africa and the last engagement between the two types occurred on 24 October 1941 over the East African front.

The Gloster Gladiator was the ultimate British biplane fighter, and the machine on which many early war aces would "cut their teeth" as tyro pilots. This book provides accounts of combats involving Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Belgian, Chinese and British pilots.