Gloster Gladiator
The Gloster Gladiator was a British single-seat biplane fighter, the RAF's last biplane fighter and its first with an enclosed cockpit. Developed by the Gloster Aircraft Company from the Gauntlet as a private venture, it entered service in 1937 already overshadowed by monoplane fighters, yet fought in Norway, over Malta and in the Middle East in the early Second World War, and was exported to 13 countries. It is best remembered for the defence of Malta in June 1940, where a handful of Sea Gladiators, popularly named Faith, Hope and Charity, were for ten days the island's only fighters.
Why It Mattered
The Gladiator was the Royal Air Force's last biplane fighter, and the first British fighter to give its pilot an enclosed cockpit. Deliveries began in 1937, but monoplane fighters such as the Hurricane were already making it obsolete as it entered service. Even so, in the first two years of the Second World War it was often the only fighter available in secondary theatres, and it performed creditably against more modern opponents. Its enduring fame comes from Malta, where Sea Gladiators assembled from packing crates formed the island's only air defence for ten days in June 1940. The three aircraft kept in the air acquired the nicknames Faith, Hope and Charity, and the National WWII Museum judges their greatest contribution to have been the confidence they gave Malta's people.
Design Notes
Gloster developed the Gladiator from its Gauntlet fighter as a private venture, submitting the design, designated SS.37, against Air Ministry Specification F.7/30. The new design kept the Gauntlet's fuselage but cut drag with single-bay wings and a cantilever undercarriage with internally sprung wheels. It was a single-seat biplane powered by an 840 hp Bristol Mercury nine-cylinder radial, giving a maximum speed of 257 mph. The prototype SS.37 made its maiden flight on 12 September 1934. Production aircraft enclosed the pilot under a sliding hood, making the Gladiator the first RAF fighter with an enclosed cockpit. The Fleet Air Arm operated a naval variant, the Sea Gladiator, of which 98 were built or converted.
Operational History
Deliveries began in 1937, and No 72 Squadron at Tangmere was the first of nine squadrons to receive the type that year. Hurricanes were already replacing Gladiators by the middle of 1938, though five squadrons still flew them later that year. The type remained in front-line RAF service until 1941, fighting in the Norwegian and Middle East campaigns, and it was exported to 13 countries. In Norway in April 1940, No 263 Squadron operated from a landing ground on a frozen lake; German bombers found the base, destroyed most of its aircraft on the ground, and the squadron abandoned it on 28 April. During the Battle of Britain, Gladiators of No 247 Squadron guarded the Plymouth naval dockyards and escorted incoming convoys. At Malta, mechanics assembled six Sea Gladiators from crates left behind by an aircraft carrier, enough to keep three aircraft in the air at any one time. From 11 to 21 June 1940 those aircraft were Malta's only defence against Italian bombing, and they shot down several Italian aircraft for the loss of one British aircraft by the end of July. Hurricanes reached Malta later in June and shared the defence, but the Gladiators kept flying alongside them. Withdrawn from the United Kingdom's front line in 1941, Gladiators continued in meteorological reconnaissance and training work, and some were among the few aircraft available to defend Crete that May.
Afterlife
Production totalled 737 aircraft, including 98 Sea Gladiators. Few intact aircraft remained by the war's end and many were quickly scrapped; Portugal was the last operator, retiring the type in 1953. The RAF Museum preserves two aircraft: K8042, built in 1937 and used for trials and training, at Cosford, and the wreck of N5628, recovered from its Norwegian lake in 1970 and displayed largely as found at the museum's London site from 1972. The fuselage of Faith, the Malta survivor, is on display at the National War Museum at Fort St Elmo in Valletta. One Gladiator still flies: L8032, presented to the Shuttleworth Collection in November 1960 after Gloster closed, is airworthy at Old Warden, and since 2007 it has worn the markings of K7985 of No 73 Squadron.