GLOSTER GAUNTLET -
The Gloster Gauntlet was designed by H P Folland to meet RAF requirements
for a new day-and-night single-seat fighter during 1927 and entered production
in 1934 to Specification 24/33. A total of 24 Gloster Gauntlet Is and
204 Gloster Gauntlet Us was built for the RAF, with 605 hp Mercury VIS
engines and two fixed for-ward-firing 0.303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns.
A handful remained in service with No 616 Squadron in September 1939 but
were soon retired from front-line squadrons, continuing to fly in the
UK as station hacks and for mete-orological duties. A few others equipped
'D' Flight of 47 Squadron (later No 430 Flight) in the Sudan and saw combat
in 1940, against Italian forces; ex-RAF Gloster Gauntlets also operated
briefly in North Africa with RAAF squadrons and in East Africa with the
SAAF. 24 ex-RAF Gloster Gauntlets supplied to Finland in 1940 served as
fighter trainers until 1945, some on skis. Seventeen Gloster Gauntlet
Us were built in Denmark in 1936/38 by the Haerens Flyvertroppers Vaerksteder
and equipped 1 Eskadrille of Danish Army Aviation at the time of the German
invasion in April 1940.
Max speed, 230 mph
(370 km/h) at 15,800 ft (4,815 m). Time to climb to 20,000ft (6,100 m),
9 min. Service ceiling, 33,500 ft (10,210 m). Empty weight, 2,770 Ib (1,255
kg). Gross weight, 3,970 Ib (1,800 kg). Span, 32ft 10 in (9.99 m). Length,
26ft 2 in (8.0 m).
