When the British aircraft manufacturer Nieuport & General closed down in 1920, the services of its chief designer, Henry Folland were hired by the Gloster AircraftCompany, who also acquired the rights for Nieuport's Nighthawk fighter, a promising design that had been ruined by the use of the unreliable ABC Dragonflyradial 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 BR2rotary 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 Nightjarcarrier fighters produced to operate from the Royal Navy'saircraft carriers, were fitted with appropriate flotation equipment and arrestor gear. The 40 Yokosuka assembled aircraft were completed as Sparrowhawk Is. A single additional Sparrowhawk II was built by Glosters as a civil demonstrator. This aircraft, registered G-EAYN flew in the 1922 Aerial Derby around London, and was later converted to form the prototype Gloster Grouse.
Operational history
The Sparrowhawk entered service with the Japanese Navy in 1921, with the ten Sparrowhawk IIIs being used for flight training operations from ramps built on one of the gun turrets of the battleshipYamashiro, as the carrier Hōshō was not yet ready. Although used for training from the Yamashiro, the Sparrowhawks were never operated from the Hōshō, it being replaced for shipboard operations by the purpose-designed Mitsubishi 1MF fighter before Hōshō entered service. The Sparrowhawk continued in service from shore bases until 1928, when it was retired from use as a trainer.
