The Gloster Gorcock was a single-engined single-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

produced to a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

contract completed in 1927. Only three were built.

Development

In May 1924 Glosters received an Air Ministry contract for three experimental biplane single-seat fighters. They were intended to develop metal-framed aircraft, with the first two to have steel

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

s and wooden wings (all fabric covered) and the third to have an all-steel

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...

. They were to be powered by a

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept it in produ ...

engine which had been used in the racing

Gloster III The Gloster III was a British racing floatplane of the 1920s intended to compete for the Schneider Trophy air race. A single-engined, single-seat biplane, two were built, with one finishing second in the 1925 race. Design and development In 19 ...

and was a water-cooled motor with three banks of four cylinders in an upright

broad arrow A broad arrow, of which a pheon is a variant, is a stylised representation of a metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point. It is a symbol used traditionally in heraldry, most notably in England, and later by the Brit ...

arrangement. Another intention was to compare aircraft performance with direct-drive and down-geared propellers. The Gorcock was a single-bay biplane with strong stagger and unequal span wings, having a strong resemblance to the

Gamecock A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...

. The inline engine allowed a smoother, longer and more pointed nose and increased the length by about 6 ft 5 in (1.95 m); the span was slightly less than the Gamecock's. The first Gorcock had a Lion IV engine, geared and producing 450 hp (335 kW) and the second an ungeared Lion VIII of 525 hp (390 kW). The radiator was mounted on the fuselage underside, between the undercarriage legs. Both engines drove fixed-pitch wooden two-blade, 9 ft (2.74 m) diameter propellers. Initially both these machines had

Grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...

style rudders, squared off with no balance; these were later replaced with

rudders, vertically extended to include a horn balance.''Flight'' 24 November 1927 The final, all-metal Gorcock had the geared Lion IV; this was Gloster's first all-metal aircraft. It had a top speed of 174 mph (280 km/h) at 5,000 ft (1,525 m), some 30 mph (48 km/h) faster than contemporary fighters. All three aircraft were delivered by June 1927. Both Glosters and

RAE Farnborough The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in me ...

used the Gorcocks for research for several years. The second machine, for example was used for airscrew experiments, flying in 1929 with a variety of duralumin propellers. The Gorcocks were also fitted with a variety of ventral radiators of different cross-sections and intake configurations. Despite their research role, the Gorcocks flew armed with two

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

s in the nose.

The name

According to the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'', gorcock is a Scottish and Northern English name for the male of the red grouse. Some sources (but not the ''OED'') suggest a connection between gore and red, but originally gore meant dung, filth or slime. Gloster GamecockA

Specifications (first Gorcock)

Notes

References

* * {{Gloster aircraft 1920s British fighter aircraft Gorcock Aircraft first flown in 1925