DE HAVILLAND DH2

THE FIGHTER THAT FOUNDED GLOSTER AIRCRAFT

As the son of the founder of the Daily Graphic newspaper, the infant aviation scene seemed like just a source of news stories to Holt Thomas - until he started visiting the early aircraft factories and became passionately involved with flying machines himself!

Visiting French flying meetings he met Henri and Maurice, the Farman brothers, who, in 1910 licenced him to sell their aircraft in Britain. In fact the famous Bristol Boxkite was based on a Farman design! George Holt Thomas then approached the Seguin brothers and gained a similar licence for Gnome rotary engines - in which the radial cylinders were cooled by spinning with the propeller, albeit at the cost of increased torque applied to the relatively flimsy airframes.

Thus equipped, George Holt Thomas formed the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco) with factories at Hendon, Walthamstow and Merton. In 1913 the Aircraft Manufacturing Company was joined by Hugh Burroughes who was to play a major role in shaping its progress and that of British aviation as a whole. "HB", as he was known, worked at Farnborough's Balloon Factory and was a fluent French speaker. With his wife, also a linguist, he translated Farman and Gnome instructional manuals.

Then, in spring 1917, the boards of both the Aircraft Manufacturing Company and H.H. Martyn formed a joint company which rented Martyn's Sunningend factory and took over the Aircraft Manufacturing Company's sub contract aircraft work. The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company was thus born with £ 10 000 capital.

By 1918 the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company was building 45 aircraft a week but even though all military contracts were cancelled after the 11 November Armistice, the Board of the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company decided to stay in the aeroplane business. As partial compensation for the cancelled contracts, the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company acquired quantities of Nighthawk components which were stored in the Winter Gardens in Cheltenham's Imperial Square. The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company also sought out the services of an aircraft designer and eventually employed Harry P. Folland from the Nieuport and General Aircraft Company.

The Sparrowhawk and Mars I led to a series of Nighthawk derivatives which were followed by the Gannet, weighing only 283 lb, which competed in the Daily Mail light aircraft trials at Lympne. A Sparrowhawk II with a BR6 rotary engine became the solitary Grouse trainer, but fitted with a 350 bhp Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar engine in 1923 it formed the basis for the Gloster Grebe fighter, of which 130 examples were built between 1923 and 1927 and equipped six RAF squadrons and served with the New Zealand Permanent Air Force. Two Grebes were carried aloft and launched from an airship while another won the 1929 King's Cup Air Race.

By 1926 the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company was a well known name in Britain but almost unpronounceable overseas. For that reason, on 11 November 1926, it was renamed the Gloster Aircraft Company.

Powered by either a 100 bhp Gnome Monosoupape or 110 bhp le Rhone 9J rotary engine, the 25' 2 1/2" long DH2 had a maximum speed of 93 mph at sea level and could climb to 10 000 feet in 24 minutes 45 seconds. Weighing 943 lb empty and 1441 lb loaded, the DH2 had an operational ceiling of 14 000 feet and an endurance of 2 3/4 hours - a long time for the pilot who had to both fly the aircraft and fire the 0.303" calibre Lewis machine gun, changing the circular magazines as they emptied and filing them in the pockets at the sides of the cockpit. However, like the contemporary two seat FE2 and Vickers FB5/9 "Gunbus", and single seat FE8, the rear engined DH2 did obviate the need to fire a machine gun through the arc of the propeller, a problem eventually solved by the German invention of interruptor apparatus to synchronise the movement of the propeller blades with the firing of the gun.

Until withdrawal from front line service in June 1917, the single seat DH2 was used to good effect against admittedly superior German fighters and Major Lionel Rees, commanding officer of 32 Squadron RFC, was awarded a Victoria Cross for a particularly outstanding combat mission on 1 July 1916 against a formation of ten German bombers in DH2 6015.

De Havilland went on to produce many outstanding aircraft such as the Mosquito fighter/ bomber of the Second World War and the post War Vampire, Venom and Sea Vixen jets which, like the DH2, had a "pod" fuselage and twin booms supporting the tail.