Gloster Gauntlet

The Gloster Gauntlet was a single-seat biplane fighter designed and built by Gloster in the 1930s, the last open-cockpit fighter flown by the Royal Air Force and the next to last biplane fighter in its service. Its long development traced back to the SS.18 prototype of 1929 and ended with a Bristol Mercury engine and a heavy armament, making it about 56 mph faster than the Bristol Bulldog it replaced. 19 Squadron received the first Gauntlet I in May 1935, and the Gauntlet II, built with Hawker structural methods, followed, with 204 built in Britain. It served with 14 squadrons, took part in the first radar-controlled interception trials, and the last examples were withdrawn in 1943.