AA26202 Gloster Sea Gladiator Mk I, N2272,  No. 804 Naval Air Squadron, July 1940   

                       

                             

The Gloster Gladiator was the last British biplane fighter, a development of the Gauntlet with an enclosed single seat cockpit, cantilever landing gear and with increased armament and a 2-blade fixed pitch propeller. First flown in 1935, the Gladiator went into service with the RAF in 1936. The Mark I had a 840 hp Bristol Mercury IX air cooled engine and the Mark II a British Mercury VIIIA engine. The Sea Gladiator was the variant adopted by the Fleet Air Arm. It was fitted with a deck arrestor, catapult points and carried a collapsible dinghy. Numbers built totaled a minimum of 756 (480 RAF, 60 RN; export into 13 countries), Gladiators were also sold to Belgium, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway China, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Egypt, Iraq, and South Africa. No. 804 Naval Air Squadron was formed in November 1939 from No. 769 Squadron Sea Gladiators which had been detached to Hatston to counter enemy attacks on Scapa Flow, the squadron subsequently embarked on HMS Glorious in April 1940 to provide fighter patrols during ferrying operations of No. 269 Squadron RAF Gladiators to Norway, and then transferred to HMS Furious at Cambeltown in early May 1940. May until September 1940 was spent by No. 804 Squadron at Hatston, operating in defense of Scapa Flow, and subsequently recognized as only one of two FAA squadrons operating with RAF Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain.