[Graham Boak]

On one site there's be some degree of overlap, but the introduction of the new wing into production would have been matched by a run down of the old - a wing is not the kind of piece that could be knocked off by the score in a brief time to have built up a large stock. A cautious management might well have planned for some continued production of the old wing to allow for delays in the arrival of the new - it is less embarrassing to have a few spare wings no longer needed than a row of unfinished aircraft awaiting wings. But 80 seems excessive. At this stage any spare fabric-covered wings could well have been legitimately sent straight to MUs as spares.

Once you switch to two sites, there is an inevitable delay between one site and the other. Had the suggestion been that the first Gloster aircraft rolled off the line with the early wing, that would have been understandable. But apparently not.

However, this last batch of aircraft with fabric-covered wings were the first deliveries from a third site, Hawkers at Langley, so (inventing here) just maybe the old wing jigs were despatched to Langley as a quick way to get production rolling there. I don't think I believe it, partly because I don't know whether Langley actually built all the airframes from scratch or was just an assembly line, but mainly because that still seems rather late.