Design and Development
The Gloster S.S.18 first flew in January 1929. The Gauntlet was a development of the Gloster S.S.19B design, which originally mounted six machine guns (i.e. four in the wings and two in the fuselage). The original S.S.19 prototype being re-engined with a Bristol Mercury VIS engine, first flying in this form in 1933. On testing the S.S.19, the Air Ministry placed an order for 24 aircraft in September 1933, to be named the "Gauntlet".
This initial order was followed up with orders for the revised Gauntlet Mk. II. This new model used a revised construction method based on that used by Hawker following Hawker's takeover of Gloster, as this was much easier to build and repair than Gloster's welded structure. A total of 204 Mk IIs were produced in the UK.
Read more about this topic: Gloster Gauntlet
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.”
—Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)