The Gloster Gladiator was a British-built biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy (as the Sea Gladiator variant) and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. 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, and the brief Anglo-Iraqi War (in 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; and Norway, Belgium, and Greece resisting Axis invasion of their respective lands.
South African Marmaduke "Pat" Pattle was the top Gladiator ace with 15 victories over Italian aircraft.
One of the best-known campaigns fought by Gladiators was the siege of Malta in 1940. The fighter force defending Malta was, for a period of ten days, a small force of British-operated Gladiators, the Hal Far Fighter Flight, giving rise to a myth that three aircraft, named Faith, Hope and Charity, formed the entire fighter cover of the island. The aircraft names came into being only after the battle was over. In fact, more than three aircraft were operational, though not always at the same time; others were used for spare parts.
A stock of 18 Sea Gladiators from 802 Naval Air Squadron had been deposited by HMS Glorious, in early 1940. Three were later shipped out to take part in the Norwegian Campaign, and another three were sent to Egypt. By April, Malta was in need of fighter protection and it was decided to form a flight of Gladiators at RAF Hal Far, to be composed of RAF and FAA personnel. Several Sea Gladiators were assembled and test-flown.
By June, two of the Gladiators had crashed and two more were assembled. Charity was shot down on 29 July 1940. Its pilot, Flying Officer Peter Hartley, scrambled at 09.45 with fellow pilots F. F. Taylor and Flight Lieutenant William Joseph "Timber" Woods, to intercept a Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 "Sparviero", escorted by nine Fiat CR.42s from 23o Gruppo. During a dogfight between the opposing fighters, a burst of fire from a CR.42 flown by Sergente Tarantino struck the fuel tank of Hartleys Gladiator (N5519), causing it to explode. He baled out after suffering severe burns. Woods shot down the commander of the Italian formation, Capitano Antonio Chiodi of the 75a Squadriglia, his aircraft falling into the sea five miles east of Grand Harbour. Chiodi was subsequently awarded a posthumous Medaglia dOro al Valor Militare (Gold Medal of Valour - Italys highest military award). In May 2009, the remains of Charity and others were the subject of an underwater search by NATO minesweepers. Hope (N5531) was destroyed on the ground by enemy bombing in May 1941. The fate of at least five more Gladiators that saw action over Malta is not as well documented.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 27 ft 5 in (8.36 m)
Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)
Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Bristol Mercury IX radial engine, 830 hp (619 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)
Cruise speed: 210 mph
Stall speed: 53 mph (46 knots, 85 km/h)
Endurance: 2 hours
Service ceiling: 32,800 ft (10,000 m)
Rate of climb: 2,300 ft/min (11.7 m/s)
Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min
Armament
Guns:
Initially; Two synchronised .303 in Vickers machine guns in fuselage sides, two .303 in Lewis machine guns; one beneath each lower wing.
Later aircraft; Four Browning machine guns; 2 synchronised guns in fuselage sides and one beneath each lower wing.
In at least some Sea Gladiators, provision existed for a pair of Brownings to be fitted under the upper wings as well, bringing the total to six. Official service release trials were not completed before the Sea Gladiators were replaced by later types - but some upper wing Brownings may have been fitted in the field, in particular in Malta.
Original FS98 model creator: Peter Russell.
All reworked to CFS1 with new textures, panel, damage profile and moving parts: Edmundo Abad 2004.
This virtual model is up-scaled to obtain a better view in Combat Flight Simulator.
(for accurate scale in FS98, replace the file Glad2.MDL by Glad2.old.MDL and rename this as Glad2.MDL)
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This virtual model represent the Gloster Sea Gladiator # N-5519, Malta 1940.
I have included new textures, moving parts and damage profile for use with CFS1, with armament of four 7.7 mm (.303 in) machine gun on lower wings and fuselage.
Special thanks to Christian Maas for his excellent tool Hex-editor XVI32 and Chuck Dome by his MDL file viewer. Without their tools, I might not have been able to assign new textures to the original model.
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Installation FS98/CFS
1. Unzip to Temporaly directory "Gladiator2.zip".
2. Copy "Gladiator2" folder to X:\CFS\aircraft directory.
