GLOSTER F.5/34 BRITISH FIGHTER PROTOTYPE

The Gloster F.5 / 34 was a British low-wing prototype fighter from the interwar period. The prototype's flight took place in 1937, but the machine never entered mass production. The plane was 9.76 meters long with a wingspan of 11.63 meters. The drive was provided by a single Bristol Mercury IX engine with 840 hp. The deck armament was to consist of four or eight 7.7 mm machine guns. In 1934, the British Air Ministry announced the specification F.5 / 34, which defined the performance of the new RAF fighter aircraft. It assumed high maximum speed and strong shooting weapons. Naturally, the new plane also had to be a monoplane to meet the requirements. The Gloster Aircraft Company, competing for the governmental order, developed a new plane almost from scratch, but the attempts at it and the removal of imperfections in the structure took a long time. As a result, the Gloster F 5/34 lost the competition with the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane machines.