Now our oldest ally has just signed a contract to buy 15 Gloster Gladiator multi-gun single-seat fighters similar to those used by our home defence squadrons.
This aeroplane has proved popular in several other countries. With a Bristol Mercury IX engine supercharged to deliver a maximum output of 840 h.p. at 14,000 ft., the Gladiator reaches a level speed of 255 mph. with full load on board. Its service "ceiling" (the level at which the rate of climb falls to 100 ft. a minute) is 35,000 ft. 6,000 ft. higher than Mount Everest.
The Gladiator carries full and elaborate equipment, including four Vickers guns. night-flying gear. navigation lights, radio receiver and sender, and oxygen-breathing apparatus. It climbs from sea-level to 20,000 ft. in nine minutes, and from sea-level to 15,000 ft—the height of Mont Blanc—in 625 minutes. It is much more than strong enough to withstand the tremendous loads and esses set up in "power" dives at inal velocity with full load; and its armament is more formidable than that of any fighter previously in the British service. Two of the guns are located in the usual grooves cut in the sides of the fuselage, and two in the lower wings outside the disc swept by the airscrew. The pilot's cockpit is enclosed by a moulded roof and windscreen of transparent material.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.