In 1917 A.W. Martyn (of architectural woodworking firm HH Martyn) and Hugh Burroughes (General Manager of The Aircraft Manufacturing Company - Airco) joined forces to create The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company. Based at the Sunningend Works in Cheltenham, the new company was to provide Airco with more production space by taking over the sub-contract component work for Farman aircraft and the Airco DH2.

By 1918 the company had reached peak production producing 45 aircraft/week. In 1921, Hugh Burroughes and David Longden acquired the rights to the Nieuport Nighthawk fighter, together with the services of Nieuport's chief designer H. P. Folland. In 1926 the company was abbreviated to the Gloster Aircraft Company because customers outside of the United Kingdom found the original name too difficult to pronounce.

With the move to metal construction the Sunningend factory was no longer suitable and the company bought the aerodrome at Hucclecote in 1928, with all the hangars and office accommodation. The Gloster Aircraft Company was taken over by Hawker Aircraft Limited in 1934 although it continued to trade under its own brand name for many years.

At the outbreak of World War II, Gloster Aircraft Company had little in the way of modern designs and so undertook the manufacture of Hawker aircraft. During the first 12 months of the conflict, Gloster built over 1,000 Hawker Hurricanes, delivering the last of the 2,750 it constructed in 1942. Production then switched to Hawker Typhoons for the RAF of which it built all but 17 of the 3,317 aircraft produced. Although deeply involved with the war effort, Gloster is probably best remembered for its involvement with the turbo-jet engine invented by Sir Frank Whittle.

On 15th May 1941, the first test flight of the Gloster E28/39 took off from Cranwell. This aircraft led the way for the introduction of the Gloster Meteor, the only Allied jet-fighter to be used in World War II. Production continued post-war with more than 3,800 being built. In 1952, the company turned to delta-winged aircraft with the Gloster Javelin although the restricted facilities at Brockworth meant that aircraft were finally completed and flown from nearby RAF Moreton Valence.

1961 saw Gloster Aircraft Company merge with Sir WG Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Limited to form Whitworth Gloster Aircraft Limited. In 1963 this was changed once again to become the Avro Whitworth Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation and so finally, the Gloster name disappeared from aviation.