Gloster Gauntlet

The somewhat embarrassing situation caused by the introduction into service of the Fairey Fox day bomber, made it imperative that the Air Ministry should replace the Gamecocks and Siskins equipping its fighter squadrons. It was essential that the aircraft chosen for this task should be manoeuvrable, considerably faster than anything then in service, and because increasing speeds meant that defender and attacker would be in contact for shorter periods, much heavier fire power was needed.

Such a requirement posed considerable problems to the British aircraft industry, with such companies as Armstrong Whitworth, Boulton & Paul, Bristol, Hawker and, of course, Gloster, all keen to secure what it was believed would be a worthwhile contract. Specifications F.9/26 and F.20/27 remained unfulfilled; and F.7/30 calling for a 402km/h four-gun fighter seemed initially even more unlikely to be attained. Gloster's first submission had been an improved version of the all-metal Goldfinch, and with the progression of time this design had been subjected to several permutations of airframe innovations and differing engines. When, in 1933, Gloster's SS.19B demonstrated a maximum speed of 346km/h during tests at Martlesham Heath, it was ordered into production under the name Gauntlet I.

During the period 1935 to 1937 Gauntlets were the fastest fighters in RAF service, partially replaced by Gladiators and Hurricanes in 1938 and finally ousted by Spitfires in 1939. Aircraft produced from 1935, after Hawker Aircraft had taken over the Gloster company, were constructed according to Hawker production methods, bringing changes to wing spar and fuselage structure. These differing aircraft were designated Gauntlet II.

Last open-cockpit biplane in RAF service, the Gauntlet equipped 14 squadrons at its peak period of usage. It was during this same period that a very different performance was given under most secret conditions when (in November 1936) three of No 32 Squadron's Gauntlets intercepted a civil airliner under the guidance of an experimental ground-radar installation at Bawdsey Manor, Suffolk. Thus the Gauntlet has the distinction of carrying out the world's first radar-controlled interception.

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