The Gloster Gladiator is a British biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) (as the Sea Gladiator variant) and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s.
Developed privately as the Gloster SS.37, it was the RAF's last biplane fighter aircraft, and was rendered obsolescent by newer monoplane designs even as it was being introduced. Though often pitted against more advanced fighters during the early days of the Second World War, it acquitted itself reasonably well in combat.
The Gladiator saw action in almost all theatres during the Second World War, with a large number of air forces, some of them on the Axis side. The RAF used it in France, Norway, Greece, the defence of Malta, the Middle East, and the brief Anglo-Iraqi War (during which the Royal Iraqi Air Force was similarly equipped). Other countries deploying the Gladiator included China against Japan, beginning in 1938; Finland (along with Swedish volunteers) against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War; Sweden as a neutral noncombatant (although Swedish volunteers fought for Finland against USSR as stated above); and Norway, Belgium, and Greece resisting Axis invasion of their respective lands.
South African pilot Marmaduke "Pat" Pattle was the top Gladiator ace with 15 victories with the type.[1][2]
The GlosterGladiator is a British biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) (as the Sea Gladiator variant)...
squadrons begun to be reequipped with more advanced fighters, such as the GlosterGladiator, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. Gauntlets were increasingly...
under its own brand name. In that same year, Gloster produced one of its most famous aircraft, the Gladiator biplane. The 1935 merger of Hawker Aircraft...
The following are operators of the GlosterGladiator. Royal Australian Air Force No. 3 Squadron RAAF Belgium received 16 Mk I aircraft (G15-G30) and an...
XXI Below are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the GlosterGladiator. Below are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Fiat...
several weeks, the island of Malta was protected by a small force of Gloster Sea Gladiator biplane fighters (subsequently supported by Hawker Hurricanes),...
shipboard operation, until shortly after the end of the war. The British GlosterGladiator biplane, the Italian Fiat CR.42 Falco and Soviet I-153 sesquiplane...
Retrieved 17 August 2012. "GlosterGladiator Mk.I K8042/8372M" (PDF). Royal Air Force Museum London. Retrieved 17 August 2012. "Gladiator Collision". Ezraysnet...
the enemy. He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron RAF, flying obsolete GlosterGladiators, the last biplane fighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised...
aircraft used by the Royal Hellenic Air Force in World War II. PZL P.24 GlosterGladiator Bloch MB.150 AEKKEA-RAAB R-29 Bristol Blenheim Fairey Battle PBY...
The Gloster Javelin is a twin-engined all-weather interceptor aircraft that served with Britain's Royal Air Force from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s...
Ministry, a contract for production aircraft eventually going to the GlosterGladiator. The type is nevertheless notable because Mitchell learnt lessons...
service long after they ceased to be competitive. Designs such as the GlosterGladiator, Fiat CR.42 Falco, and Polikarpov I-15 were common even in the late...
propeller arc, however .303 Brownings were indeed synchronized on GlosterGladiator and some other early WWII designs. Similar versions for a variety...
evolved into the Hurricane were for a similar armament fitment to the GlosterGladiator: four machine guns; two in the wings and two in the fuselage, synchronised...
imminent, more modern aircraft were bought from abroad, including twelve GlosterGladiator fighters from the UK, and six Heinkel He 115s from Germany. Considerable...
replaced in part by the Gloster Gamecock, which was a developed Grebe, (Gloster fighter design, from Nighthawk to GlosterGladiator was evolutionary). Two...
GlosterGladiator fighter plane, ultimately being credited with destroying nine enemy aircraft between 1937 and 1939. In 1939, while flying a Gloster...
that had been hit by anti-aircraft fire was attacked by an Iraqi GlosterGladiator, and was damaged to the point where it had to land in emergency outside...
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