Warplanes of the UK: Gloster Gladiator biplane fighter

Gloster Gladiator

(RAF Photo)

Gloster Gladiator refueling, c1940.

The Gloster Gladiator is a British-built 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 obsolete by newer monoplane designs even as it was being introduced. Though often pitted against more formidable foes 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 non-combatant (although Swedish volunteers fought for Finland against USSR as stated above); and Norway, Belgium, and Greece resisting Axis invasion of their respective lands. (Wikipedia)

(RAF Photo)

Gloster Gladiator (Serial No. K6131), ca 1938.

(Kogo Photo)

(Tim Felce Photo)

(Alan Wilson Photo)

Gloster Gladiator Mk. I (Serial No. L8032), 423/427, built in 1937, Reg. No. G-AMRK. painted as (Serial No. K7985), 73 Squadron, The Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden, Bedfordshire.

(Alan Wilson Photos)

Gloster Gladiator Mk. I (Serial No. N5903), Reg. No. G-GLAD, The Fighter Collection, Duxford, Cambridgeshire. Airworthy.  Built in 1939 as a Sea Gladiator but converted during restoration into a straight Gladiator, still wearing it’s genuine serial.  This Gladiator was flown briefly by 141 Squadron, but spent much of the Second World War in storage.  After a period of private ownership, and a few years as a static exhibit at the Fleet Air Arm Museum it was bought by the Fighter Collection from The Shuttleworth Collection in 1994 and restored to flying condition, taking its first post-restoration flight in 2007.  It is painted in the pre-Second World War markings of No. 72 Squadron RAF.

(Hugh Llwelyn Photo)

(Alan Wilson Photo)

Gloster Gladiator Mk. I (Serial No. K8042), 87 Sqn, built in 1937, Royal Air Force Museum London, Hendon.

Gloster Sea Gladiator Mk. (Serial No. N5520), on an airfield in Malta, possibly flown by No. 261 Squadron RAF at RAF Ta' Qali, ca 1940.  The aircraft has been refitted with a Bristol Mercury engine and three-bladed Hamilton propeller salvaged from a Bristol Blenheim.  N5520 is the only surviving Gladiator of the Hal Far Fighter Flight, and was presented to the people of Malta as Faith in 1943.  (RAF Photo)

Gloster Sea Gladiator (Serial No. N5518), Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, Ilchester, Somerset.

‍