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The Gloster Gamecock was a biplane fighter of the Royal Air Force, a development of the Mk III Grebe, that first flew in February 1925. It differed from the Grebe primarily by way of its Bristol Jupiter engine, which replaced the unreliable Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar. Other changes included improved ailerons, refined fuselage contours, and internally mounted machine guns. The Gamecock Mark I entered service with No. 23 Squadron RAF at RAF Henlow in May 1926 and they were also the last of six squadrons to operate the fighter until July 1931. This was a fairly short RAF service life, partly because of its high accident rate - of the 90 operated by the RAF, 22 were lost in landing or spin accidents. These faults were remedied in the Mk. II version, by means of a longer upper wing and a modified tail unit. During the Finnish Winter War 1939-40, a Gamecock was used to capture a Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bomber. On 29 January 1940 the Finnish Gamecock strafed two Soviet DB-3s when they landed on Finnish soil (which they mistook for Estonia) to transfer fuel from one plane to the other. The strafed crews hurried into the one plane that had enough fuel left and made good their escape, leaving the DB-3 behind to be captured by the Finns.〔Keskinen, Stenman,Niska: "Venäläiset pommittajat /Soviet bombers"〕 ==Variants== * Gamecock Mk I : Single-seat fighter aircraft for the RAF. 90 built.〔James 1971, p.350.〕 * Gamecock Mk II : Single-seat fighter aircraft with revised wing and tail. One new built for RAF with another Mk I converted to Mk II standard.〔James 1971, p.119.〕 There were three exported to Finland in 1928, with a further 15 built under licence in Finland from 1929-1930 as the ''Kukko''. The type remained in Finnish service until 1944.〔James 1971, p.121-122.〕 * Gamecock Mk III : One RAF Gamecock Mk II modified with lengthened fuselage for spin trials.〔James 1971, p.118.〕 * Gambet : A carrier-based version of the Gamecock produced as a private venture. Manufactured under licence for the Imperial Japanese Navy as the Nakajima A1N; about 150 were operated from 1929 to 1935 and saw combat during the January 28 Incident in 1932. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gloster Gamecock」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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