29-732: The Nieuport Nighthawk was a British fighter aircraft developed by the Nieuport & General Aircraft company for the Royal Air Force towards the end of the First World War . Although ordered into production before the aircraft first flew, it did not enter large scale service with the RAF owing to unreliable engines. Re-engined aircraft did see service in Greece, serving from 1923 to 1938. The Nieuport & General Aircraft Co. Ltd.
58-480: A British speed record of 196.4 mph (313.3 km/h). In 1922, the aircraft made an attempt on the world air speed record . Although the recorded speed of 212.15 mph (342 km/h) was faster than the existing record, it did not exceed it by the required margin, so the record was not recognised. In 1923, this aircraft was modified with new wings and a more powerful Lion engine as the Gloster I . The Gloster I
87-667: A new engine, the Rolls-Royce R , which had been designed for racing. During the 1930s a new generation of much larger and more powerful engines appeared and the Lion became uncompetitive. By the time the Bristol Hercules and the Rolls-Royce Merlin arrived in the late 1930s, the Lion was obsolete. The Sea Lion, a marine version of the Lion, was used to power high speed RAF Rescue Launches . The Lion aero engine
116-512: A record of over 250 mph (400 km/h) in 1932 and John Cobb 's 394 mph (634 km/h) Railton Mobil Special in 1947—a record that came well after the Lion had passed its prime and stood until the 1960s. The record had been held by British drivers for 32 years. Lions powered successful entrants in the most prestigious event in air racing, the Schneider Trophy , in 1922 and 1927 but were dropped by Supermarine in favour of
145-529: A shipboard configuration at the Isle of Grain in 1920. In a vain attempt to work out the problems with the Dragonfly engine, four Nighthawks were also retained by the R.A.E. with experiments carried out in 1920–21. The K-151 was further converted to a two-seater with a new cockpit fitted forward of the pilot's position and was sent to India and Malaya in 1920 for a series of sales-promotion flights. After completing
174-511: A single-seat fighter to be powered by the ABC Dragonfly engine. This was a radial engine under development which was meant to deliver 340 hp (254 kW) while weighing only 600 lb (272 kg), and on the basis of the promised performance, was ordered into production in large numbers. The design was also projected as a shipboard fighter, although this was considered a secondary role. To meet this requirement, Folland designed
203-432: A small production run of Grouse II for Sweden. The Grouse series was the progenitor of the later Gloster Grebe . The Gloster Nighthawk , or Mars VI, replaced the Dragonfly with either an Armstrong-Siddeley Jaguar or a Bristol Jupiter radial. In 1922, the RAF acquired 29 aircraft converted from Nieuport Nighthawks, powered by both Jaguar and Jupiter engines, while Greece purchased 25 Jaguar powered fighters. Three of
232-658: The Bentley BR2 rotary engine. The Japanese Sparrowhawks were flown from the Yokosuka Naval Base as well as from platforms built on gun turrets of warships. The Nightjar (known as the Mars X) was a similar carrier fighter for the RAF. A further factory conversion of a Mars III (civil registered as G-EAYN) led to the Gloster Grouse I powered by a 185 hp Siddeley Lynx, that became the prototype for
261-490: The Royal Aeronautical Establishment (R.A.E.) at Farnborough , but in that form did not enter operational service. Nieuport built a sport aircraft, the L.C.1 (Land Commercial) Nighthawk with the first civil registered aircraft, K-151 appearing on 21 June 1919 at the first postwar Aerial Derby at Hendon . An additional Nighthawk prototype (H8553) was fitted with a hydrovane and was tested in
290-678: The 1921 Aerial Derby. Nieuport & General closed down in August 1920, and the rights to the Nighthawk were purchased by the Gloster Aircraft Company , who also hired Folland as chief designer. Gloster proceeded to produce a number of derivatives of the Nighthawk, using stocks of Nighthawk components acquired by the company from the cancelled production run, calling them the Gloster Mars . The first of these derivatives
319-556: The 1921 event, the aircraft was privately sold. A much-modified Nighthawk appeared in 1920, designated the Goshawk with the aircraft incorporating a more streamlined fuselage, rounded tips on the upper wings and a tightly cowled engine installation. In testing, the Goshawk reached 166.5 mph (268.0 km/h), a British record at the time. On 12 July 1921 the Goshawk was destroyed when Harry Hawker fatally crashed while practising for
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#1732779743683348-506: The Chanak Crisis in 1922 and were operated from H.M.S. Argus from 1922–1924. Data from The British Fighter since 1912 General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Nieuport %26 General Aircraft The Nieuport & General Aircraft Company Ltd was a British aircraft manufacturer, established during
377-593: The First World War to build French Nieuport aircraft under licence, which closed down in 1920. On 16 November 1916, Samuel Waring , the owner of the furniture manufacturer Waring & Gillow , established the Nieuport & General Aircraft Company at Cricklewood , London to build the French Nieuport 11 fighter under licence. It built 50 Nieuport 17bis fighters before production changed to
406-488: The Lion the most powerful Allied aircraft engine, which had previously been the Liberty L-12 , producing 400 horsepower (300 kW). As the most powerful engine available (particularly after a turbocharger became an option in 1922), the Lion went on to commercial success. Through the years between the wars the Lion was ubiquitous and Napier manufactured little else. They stopped making cars in 1925 and little thought
435-566: The Nighthawk, a wooden two-bay biplane . An initial order for 150 Nighthawks was placed in August 1918, well before prototypes or flight-ready engines were available, with the first prototype, serial number F-2909 flying in April or May 1919. By this time, it was clear that the Dragonfly had serious problems, being prone to extreme overheating (which was so severe as to char propeller hubs), high fuel consumption and severe vibration (inadvertently being designed to run at its resonance frequency ). When
464-520: The RAF's Gloster Nighthawks were sent to Iraq in 1923 for more extensive evaluation, being tested by No 1 , 8 and 55 Squadrons. The 25 Greek aircraft were delivered in 1923, remaining in service until 1938. The final Nighthawk variant was the Mars X or Nightjar naval fighter powered by a 230 hp Bentley B.R. 2. All of the series of 22 Nightjars were converted from available stocks of original Nighthawks. Nightjars were used operationally during
493-595: The design of the engine, renamed Lion, was completed in 1917; hand-built prototypes ran later that year. It was fitted to an Airco DH.9 in early 1918, and many cooling problems were observed during testing. The milled block was difficult to build with the required accuracy and the design reverted to separate aluminium cylinders. Both problems were solved by the middle of the year and the engine entered production in June 1918. The first Lion I versions delivered 450 horsepower (340 kW) from their 24 litres . The power output made
522-485: The designer of the S.E.5 fighter, as chief designer. Folland designed a number of aircraft, with the Nieuport Nighthawk fighter being ordered into production in August 1918, but the failure of the engine chosen to power it together with the end of the First World War, led to production being ended and the Nighthawk not entering service. Nieuport & General was closed down in August 1920, together with
551-624: The engine could be persuaded to work, the Nighthawk showed excellent performance, but in September 1919, it was finally recognised that the Dragonfly was unsalvagable and the engine programme was cancelled, although by this time 1,147 engines had been delivered. Seventy Nighthawks were completed by Nieuport and the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company , with a further 54 airframes without engines being completed. Small numbers of Dragonfly-powered Nighthawks were delivered to
580-483: The engine with its 12 cylinders in what they called a "broad arrow" —three banks of four cylinders sharing a common crankcase. The configuration is also known as a W engine . The engine was also advanced in form, the heads using four valves per cylinder with twin overhead camshafts on each bank of cylinders and a single block being milled from aluminium instead of the common separate-cylinder steel construction used on almost all other designs. Under Arthur Rowledge ,
609-459: The first "newspaper" flight from Bombay to Poona in February 1920, delivering newspapers, the sales demonstrator was sold to India in September 1920. A new civil Nighthawk, registered G-EAJY, again modified to a two-seater, had its wingspan reduced by two ft and was flown at the 1920 Aerial Derby where it placed fourth at an average speed of 132.67 mph (213.51 km/h). After appearing in
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#1732779743683638-610: The more capable Sopwith Camel , building 400 Camels, with 100 Sopwith Snipes being delivered postwar. In 1917, an official Inquiry (the Burbidge Report) into the activities of the Royal Aircraft Factory led to design and construction of aircraft at Farnborough being stopped, and the Factory's design teams being broken up. Nieuport & General took advantage of this situation to hire Henry Folland ,
667-561: The most powerful engine of its day and kept it in production long after other contemporary designs had been superseded. It is particularly well known for its use in a number of racing designs, for aircraft, boats and cars. Early in the First World War, Napier were contracted to build aero engines to designs from other companies, initially a Royal Aircraft Factory model and then Sunbeams . Both engines proved to be unreliable and in 1916 Napier decided to design an engine with high power, light weight and low frontal area. Napier's engineers laid out
696-515: The other aircraft companies owned by Waring, British Aerial Transport (BAT) and the Alliance Aeroplane Company . Folland was hired by the Gloster Aircraft Company , continuing development of the Nighthawk. 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
725-598: Was also adapted to power propeller-driven motor sleighs, which were used for high-speed transport and SAR duties on sea ice by the Finnish Air Force and Navy. Turning away from the broad arrow layout, Napier designed new engines using the more compact H engine layout. The 16-cylinder Napier Rapier produced 400 hp (300 kW) and the 24-cylinder Napier Dagger delivered just under 1,000 hp (750 kW). The engines were smaller than contemporary designs from other companies and Napier started afresh with
754-564: Was formed on 16 November 1916 to produce French Nieuport aircraft under licence. During 1917, hiring Henry Folland as chief designer, the company started to design its own aircraft, with the first type, the Nieuport B.N.1 fighter (the designation signifying British Nieuport) flying early in 1918. To produce a fighter to replace the Sopwith Snipe in service with the RAF, the Air Ministry produced RAF Specification Type 1 for
783-547: Was given to replacing their world-famous product. Between the wars the Lion engine powered over 160 different aircraft types. In highly tuned racing versions, the engine could reach 1,300 hp (970 kW) and it was used to break many world height, air speed and distance records in aircraft and boats, delivering 1,375 hp (1,025 kW) in a highly tuned Lion for a water speed record of 100 mph (160 km/h) in 1933. In land speed records, Lion engines powered many of Sir Malcolm Campbell 's record breakers including
812-669: Was sold to the RAF in December 1923, being fitted with floats and used as a Trainer for the High Speed Flight RAF , being scrapped in 1927. The Mars I, after conversion to the Gloster I, was fitted with floats and used as a training seaplane for the British 1925 and 1927 Schneider Trophy teams, remaining in use until 1930. The Gloster Sparrowhawk (or Mars II, III and IV) was a naval fighter for Japan , powered by
841-473: Was the Mars I (or Bamel ) racing aircraft. Powered by a 450 hp (336 kW) Napier Lion II engine, this used a Nighthawk undercarriage, rear fuselage and tail with new, single-bay wings, first flying on 20 June 1921. It was modified progressively to reduce drag and increase speed, with the wing area at one stage being reduced from the original 205 ft (19.0m) to 165 ft (15.3 m), in this form setting
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