AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 49 / 244

Plate 49 of 244 · Between the wars · Single-seat day fighter

Gloster Gamecock

Gamecock I, painted as 'J7904', the full-size Gloster Gamecock I reproduction built by Jet Age Museum volunteers from 1992 and displayed at the museum at Gloucestershire Airport, Staverton, painted as the commanding officer's aircraft of No. 43 Squadron in the late 1920s: Gloster's single-seat RAF day fighter, a compact wooden single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span, ailerons on all four wings, a horn-balanced rudder above a low fin and an uncowled Bristol Jupiter VI radial, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid as displayed, with the starboard wings and tailplane left uncovered to show their spruce structure: aluminium dope elsewhere, dark grey forward decking, 43 Squadron black and white chequers along both sides of the fuselage, type A roundels on the fuselage and on the port lower wing, black 'J-7904' on the fuselage and rudder, a blue, white and red rudder, varnished wooden struts, a black engine, a red hub cap and a dark wooden propeller with brass tips (shape from a published three-view, checked against photographs of J7904).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 'J7904', the full-size Gloster Gamecock I reproduction built by Jet Age Museum volunteers from 1992 and displayed at the museum at Gloucestershire Airport, Staverton, painted as the commanding officer's aircraft of No. 43 Squadron in the late 1920s: Gloster's single-seat RAF day fighter, a compact wooden single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span, ailerons on all four wings, a horn-balanced rudder above a low fin and an uncowled Bristol Jupiter VI radial, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid as displayed, with the starboard wings and tailplane left uncovered to show their spruce structure: aluminium dope elsewhere, dark grey forward decking, 43 Squadron black and white chequers along both sides of the fuselage, type A roundels on the fuselage and on the port lower wing, black 'J-7904' on the fuselage and rudder, a blue, white and red rudder, varnished wooden struts, a black engine, a red hub cap and a dark wooden propeller with brass tips (shape from a published three-view, checked against photographs of J7904). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Gamecock I, Flycatcher I); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Gamecock I modelled here.

History

The Gamecock

Henry Folland’s Gamecock was a development of his Gloster Grebe, the RAF’s standard fighter of the mid-1920s. The Grebe’s Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar had proved unreliable, so the new design took the Bristol Jupiter radial, and Folland tidied the airframe: the two Vickers machine guns moved from the top decking into troughs low on the fuselage sides, the tail was redesigned and the wings kept the Grebe’s thick high-lift upper plane over a smaller lower one. The prototype first flew on 22 February 1925, and the Air Ministry ordered the type into production that autumn.

The Gamecock I entered service with No. 23 Squadron at Henlow in May 1926, and served with six front-line squadrons in all, No. 43 among them. It was fast for its day, at about 155 mph, and very agile, and Gamecock formation aerobatics were a highlight of the Hendon RAF Displays. It was also unforgiving: the long overhang of the upper wing could flutter and the type was prone to spinning: 22 of the ninety the RAF flew were lost in landing or spinning accidents, and extra struts were fitted to brace the overhang.

The Gamecock was one of the last of the RAF’s wooden-framed fighters, and the last squadron, No. 23, gave it up in July 1931 for the metal-framed Bristol Bulldog. The improved Gamecock II, with a new upper wing, was built in small numbers; Finland bought two and built fifteen more under licence as the Kukko, which served as a fighter until 1935 and as a trainer until 1944. Its line continued at Gloster through the Gauntlet and the Gladiator, the RAF’s last biplane fighter.

This airframe

Gamecock I reproduction J7904

J7904The airframe modelled

This full-size reproduction of a Gamecock I was begun in 1992 by volunteers of the Jet Age Museum at Gloucestershire Airport, Staverton, close to Gloster’s old works at Hucclecote. It is painted as J7904, the commanding officer’s aircraft of No. 43 Squadron in the late 1920s, and the museum has left the starboard wings and tailplane uncovered to show their wooden structure. The model shows it as displayed, standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid: aluminium dope elsewhere, dark grey forward decking, the squadron’s black and white chequers along both sides of the fuselage, roundels on the fuselage and on the port lower wing, ‘J-7904’ in black on the fuselage and rudder, a blue, white and red rudder, varnished wooden struts, a black Jupiter, a red hub cap and a dark wooden propeller with brass tips. The shape follows a published three-view and was checked against photographs of J7904; the top of the upper wing, which no photograph shows, is left plain.

See it at Jet Age Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Gamecock in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 244 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.