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DE HAVILLAND DH2

THE FIGHTER THAT FOUNDED GLOSTER AIRCRAFT

  
 

 

    
  Among the companies founded by Britain's pioneering aircraft designers and pilots were Sopwith ( founded by T.O.M Sopwith ) Shorts ( founded by the Short Brothers ) Blackburn ( founded by Peter Blackburn ) and Handley Page ( founded by Cheltenham born Sir Frederick Handley-Page ) But less well known as the founder of Gloster Aircraft is George Holt Thomas.  
 

 

    
  GEORGE HOLT THOMAS - LICENCED TO BUILD  
 

 

    
  Among the companies founded by Britain's pioneering aircraft designers and pilots were Sopwith ( founded by T.O.M Sopwith ) Shorts ( founded by the Short Brothers ) Blackburn ( founded by Peter Blackburn ) and Handley Page ( founded by Cheltenham born Sir Frederick Handley-Page ) But less well known as the founder of Gloster Aircraft is George Holt Thomas.

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.

  
 

 

    
  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.  
 

 

    
  THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE AIRCRAFT COMPANY  
 

 

    
When war was declared in August 1914, the Aircraft Manufacturing Company soon needed more production space to cope with its orders for DH2 single seat scouts, as pictured above. Because these aircraft were made of wood, Hugh Burroughes was advised to visit H.H. Martyn and Company at Sunningend near Cheltenham Lansdown railway station - a firm noted for its first class carpentry. Following his visit to Sunningend in April 1915, H.H. Martyn received contracts to build components for Farman aircraft and then DH2s and BE2Cs.
 


This delightful picture of the doping room at H.H. Martyn - with what looks like the fabric covering of DH2 wings being tightened to optimum aerodynamic eficientcy - was very kindly shared by Ken Harvey of South Australia. The lady inside the red circle is believed to be Ken's Grandmother Ethel Simms, born in 1889 and who would have been in her late twenties when this picture was taken
 


The doping room at H.H. Martyn - with what looks like the fabric covering of DH2 wings being tightened to optimum aerodynamic efficiency. The lady inside the red circle is believed to be Ethel Sims, born in 1889 and who would have been in her late twenties when this picture was taken
 


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.  
 

 

    
  The 4mm scale model De Havilland DH2 in the Ron Brooks collection has been provided with a trailer for road transport. The real DH2s built at Sunningend were transported to Hucclecote on their own wheels, with a stop at a pub en route to let the bearings cool down!  
 

 

    
  The 4mm scale model De Havilland DH2 in the Ron Brooks collection has been provided with a trailer for road transport. The real DH2s built at Sunningend were transported to Hucclecote on their own wheels, with a stop at a Shurdington pub en route to let the bearings cool down!  
 

 

    
  Orders were placed so quickly that the new Gloucestershire Aircraft Company put work out to local firms including Savages Ltd, Daniels and Company of Stroud and the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. When it was time for the aircraft assembled at Sunningend to fly they were towed ( with wings detatched ) behind an old Ford lorry along the A46 road to Hucclecote near Gloucester, where an Air Board Acceptance Park had been built in 1915. In time, Hucclecote would become the new home of the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company.

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 Nieuport 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.

  
 

 

    
  Orders were placed so quickly that the new Gloucestershire Aircraft Company put work out to local firms including Savages Ltd, Daniels and Company of Stroud andd the Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Company. When it was time for the aircraft assembled at Sunningend to fly they were towed ( with wings detatched ) behind an old Ford lorry along the A46 road to Hucclecote near Gloucester, where an Air Board Acceptance Park had been built in 1915  
 

 

    
  TURNING JAPANESE  
 

 

    
 

am indebted to Dr Tom Dine, Aero Engine Researcher at the W.O. Bentley Memorial Foundation, for this historic picture of a Gloster Sparrowhawk II and much of the data in the following section.

  
 

 

    
  I am indebted to Dr Tom Dine, Aero Engine Researcher at the W.O. Bentley Memorial Foundation, for this historic picture of a Gloster Sparrowhawk II and much of the data in the following section.  
 

 

    
  The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company's first export order was for fifty Nighthawks modified for the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and named Sparrowhawks. Eventually 92 Sparrowhawks were produced.

Then came the Mars I racing biplane, conceived and built in less than four weeks using some of the stored Nighthawk components. Flown by Jimmy James, the Mars I - also known as the Bamel after Hugh Burroughes comment during construction that it was "half bare, half camel" - won the Aerial Derby in 1921, 1922 and 1923 and set a British Speed Record at 196 mph. It was renamed Gloster I and, mounted on floats, was used for Schneider Trophy Contest practice flying. 

The Bamel was powered by a 450 hp Napier Lion II engine as a replacement for the unreliable ABC Dragonfly engine originally fitted to the Nieuport Nighthawk

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 9 cylinder 230 bhp BR2 rotary engine (developed from the earlier Bentley Rotary 1 / Admiralty Rotary 1) became the solitary Grouse trainer G-EAYN, 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 the R33 airship (G-FAAG) while another won the 1929 King's Cup Air Race.

The Sparrowhawk I, II and III were also known as the Mars II, III, IV and were similarly developments of the Nieuport Nighthawk with BR2 engines while the Mars VI retained the name Nighhawk and was powered by a 325 hp Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar engine.  The Mars X was meanwhile known as the Nightjar and was fitted with a Bentley engine.

  
 

 

    
  In 1924 a Grebe with a 398 bhp Bristol Jupiter radial engine became the prototype Gloster Gamecock fighter (above). Although perpetuating the Grebe's wing and tail flutter problems, 96 Gamecocks were built. They flew in five RAF and three Finnish Air Force squadrons, for which 15 Gamecocks - known as Kukkos - were built by the Finnish National Aircraft Factory in 1929-30.  
 

 

    
  FROM GLOUCESTERSHIRE TO GLOSTER  
 

 

    
  In 1924 a Grebe with a 398 bhp Bristol Jupiter radial engine became the prototype Gloster Gamecock fighter (above). Although perpetuating the Grebe's wing and tail flutter problems, 96 Gamecocks were built. They flew in five RAF and three Finnish Air Force squadrons, for which 15 Gamecocks - known as Kukkos - were built by the Finnish National Aircraft Factory in 1929-30.

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.

  
 

 

    
  Designed by in early 1915 by Geoffrey de Havilland, the DH2 first equipped Number 24 Squadron Royal Flying Corps later in the same year before moving to France to commence operations in February 1916. Total production amounted to 400 machines and the DH2 equipped three squadrons in France as well as serving in smaller numbers across the Middle East.  
 

 

    
  DH2 FACTFILE  
 

 

    
  Designed by in early 1915 by Geoffrey de Havilland, the DH2 first equipped Number 24 Squadron Royal Flying Corps later in the same year before moving to France to commence operations in February 1916. Total production amounted to 400 machines and the DH2 equipped three squadrons in France as well as serving in smaller numbers across the Middle East.

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 already solved by the German invention of interrupter apparatus to synchronise the movement of the propeller blades with the firing of the gun.  This technology was first applied to the Fokker Eindecker in April 1915 and led to the first "Fokker Scourge".

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 - the first day of the Battle of the Somme - 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.

  
 

 

    
  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.