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3 unusual facts about Nieuport Nighthawk


Nieuport Nighthawk

Seventy Nighthawks were completed by Nieuport and the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company, with a further 54 airframes without engines being completed.

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.

The final Nighthawk variant was the Mars X or Nightjar naval fighter powered by a 230 hp Bentley B.R. 2.


Gloster Sparrowhawk

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.


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