Gloster Gladiator

The Gloster Gladiator was a biplane fighter designed and produced by Gloster, the last biplane fighter flown by the Royal Air Force and the first to have an enclosed cockpit. It began as the private-venture SS.37 derived from the Gauntlet, was adapted to Air Ministry Specification F.7/30, and used Hawker wing-design techniques, a Bristol Mercury radial engine and a cantilever main undercarriage. It first flew on 12 September 1934 and entered RAF service on 23 February 1937, by which time newer monoplanes were already making it obsolescent. The Fleet Air Arm flew the Sea Gladiator, and the type fought in France, Norway, Greece, Malta, the Middle East, Finland and China, its top ace being South African pilot Marmaduke Pattle with 15 victories.