The Gladiator was the last of a long line of superb British biplane fighter designs. Though the Hurricane and Spitfire prototypes were already flying when the Gladiator entered service, the British, in desperate need of fighter aircraft due to the looming threat of World War Two and the rapid expansion of the RAF in 1938, ended up having 13 of 35 fighter squadrons still equipped with Gladiators at the start of the war. A state-of-the-art aircraft when designed in 1936, the Gladiator offered good top-speed performance for its day, a radio, blind-flying instruments, an enclosed cockpit, and a pack of four fast-firing .303 machine guns. This was twice the firepower of the typical biplane fighters that had proceeded it and sufficient to deal with the lightly-built aircraft threats of the 1930s. Highly maneuverable, the Gladiator gave a good account of itself in many different theaters before being quickly retired from the front lines. Like all biplanes, it was eclipsed early in the war by stronger, faster, more powerful and heavily-armed monoplane fighters.
TACTICS: Maneuver hard! The Gladiator has excellent dogfighting performance below 10,000 feet where its engine has maximum power.
STRENGTHS: Extremely maneuverable.
WEAKNESSES: Slow, light on firepower, lightly-built and has no armor.
