Gloster Sparrowhawk
| Sparrowhawk | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Japanese Navy's Gloster Sparrowhawk I | |
| Role | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Gloster Aircraft Company |
| Designer | Henry Folland |
| First flight | 1921 |
| Introduction | 1921 |
| Retired | 1928 |
| Primary user | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Number built | 91 |
| Developed from | Nieuport Nighthawk |
| Variants | Gloster Grouse |
The Gloster Sparrowhawk was a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the early 1920s. A development by Gloster Aircraft Company of the earlier Nieuport Nighthawk fighter, 50 aircraft were built by Gloster for the Imperial Japanese Navy, with a further 40 being assembled in Japan, being operated from 1921 to 1928.
When the British aircraft manufacturer Nieuport & General closed down in 1920, the services of its chief designer, Henry Folland were hired by the Gloster Aircraft Company, who also acquired the rights for Nieuport's Nighthawk fighter, a promising design that had been ruined by the use of the unreliable ABC Dragonfly radial engine. Folland used the Nighthawk as the basis for a series of developments known as the Gloster Mars series, with both air racer and fighters being produced. When, in 1921, Britain sent the Sempill Mission to Japan to allow the Japanese to develop a Naval Air Arm, Gloster was able to meet the requirements of the Imperial Japanese Navy for a single-seat fighter by a modification of the Nighthawk.
The resulting Sparrowhawk was made from existing stocks of stored Nighthawk components, but replaced the Dragonfly with the Bentley BR2 rotary engine, allowing Japan's order for 50 Gloster built aircraft and a further 40 in component form for manufacture at the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal to be quickly met. Of the 50 Gloster-built Sparrowhawks, 30 were Sparrowhawk I land based fighters, ten Sparrowhawk II twin-seat advanced trainers and the remaining ten completed as Sparrowhawk III shipboard fighters. The Sparrowhawk IIIs, which were similar to the 22 Gloster Nightjar carrier fighters produced to operate from the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers, were fitted with appropriate flotation equipment and arrestor gear. The 40 Yokosuka assembled aircraft were completed as Sparrowhawk Is.
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