[agracier]

Just a thought: there being so few biplanes in Il-2, would it be possible to modify the Gladiator into having an open cockpit instead of an enclosed one?

I am constantly amazed at what modders can all come up with and seeing the Pzl-24 project where a cockpit is added to a P11c, it strikes me that removing a cockpit should be even easier.

I can't think of an aircraft that an open cockpit Gladiator would be hacking, except that it would give a somewhat different look and feel ...

[RAF_Magpie]

Moved - please post in the correct sections.

[madcat]

If you remove the cockpit canopy and the 2 MG's in the wings you get the Gloster Gauntlet.

Don't think the RAF was using them at the out break of war but Finland might of?

[Oh_Frustration]

We used Gauntlets as LLv 24's fighters and trainers at the break of the Winter War...

But Gladiator is not Gladiator without the canopy.

[vanir]

If you remove the cockpit canopy and the 2 MG's in the wings you get the Gloster Gauntlet.

Don't think the RAF was using them at the out break of war but Finland might of?

Commonwealth countries like Australia and RAF overseas squadrons (Burma/Singapore, Middle East) still had them in service until late 1940. Things like the Hurricane were big news in those places, even though it was quickly obsolete in Europe.

The Gauntlet also used an older Mercury of course, the VI series in the Mark II rated for 640hp (840hp in the IX series for the Gladiator). Wingspan was a little greater than the Gladiator and the undercarriage suspension was an older type. The two machine guns were Lewis models and had less performance than the later Brownings (early Gladiators actually featured two Lewis guns installed at the wings along with the two Brownings in the fuselage, but this was quickly changed with availability). All in all the Gauntlet was more than 35km/h slower than the Gladiator, with lesser sustained climb but it did manage to squeeze a couple of hundred kilometres more range from the fuel tank.

The Gauntlet was, along with the Bristol Bulldog and Hawker Fury the real interwar fighter of the thirties which carried the RAF banner up to and into WW2. The Gladiator was introduced around the same time as the Hurricane, both only just ahead of the Spitfire and these were all new types which really just appeared on the eve of war, not in enough numbers and not everywhere at once (the bigger issue with the Spitfire was also introducing new construction techniques).

It's easy to forget as Hitler's armies marched most air forces were all Avia, Fiat, Morane-Saulnier, PZL, Polikarpov, Bristol and Gloster. And it was all biplanes or parasols, fabric and wood. What we read is the best new developments in England were the Spitfire, in America the P-35/36, France the D.520 but neither the funding or foresight was really available to have hordes of them equipped, their pilots trained and ready for service. England for example had enough trouble in Parliament just trying to get Gladiators and Hurricanes filling most fighter squadrons, it was only the realities of attrition faced after the onset of general hostilities which put military aviation industry rightly in order.

[ILV_Aquila_Noctis]

I'd be all in for RAF early types like Bulldog and Gauntlet...but the modders are quite bus right now...but maybe someone new gives it a try?

[caldrail]

It's easy to forget as Hitler's armies marched most air forces were all Avia, Fiat, Morane-Saulnier, PZL, Polikarpov, Bristol and Gloster. And it was all biplanes or parasols, fabric and wood. What we read is the best new developments in England were the Spitfire, in America the P-35/36, France the D.520 but neither the funding or foresight was really available to have hordes of them equipped, their pilots trained and ready for service. England for example had enough trouble in Parliament just trying to get Gladiators and Hurricanes filling most fighter squadrons, it was only the realities of attrition faced after the onset of general hostilities which put military aviation industry rightly in order.

There were changes afoot. Arguably Britain and Germany had led the field in aerodynamic development, and in particular, the Bf109 is noted for its collection of state-of-the-art features. However... They weren't alone. Many nations were designing monoplane fighters, perhaps inspired by others, or as projects in their own right. Aircraft like the Avia 135, the Renard R-38, the Rogozarski IK3, Republic Lancer, and so on. The french produced the Bloch 15* series, whilst not particular inspiring aeroplanes, did lead to the the Bloch 157 which in 1940 was completed and tested by the germans and found to have a maximum level speed of 440mph.

The period from 1935 to 1940 was transitonal between the older wood-and-fabric biplane mindset and the newer high performance technology, no doubt spurred on by the onset of political strife and the promise of war.