X-Nico

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.

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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.

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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.

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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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