In 1939, while flying a Gloster Gladiator, the fighter in which he scored 6.5 of his 8.5 aerial victories, he was hit by enemy fire and forced to bail out of his burning aircraft, and although he parachuted to safety, he suffered serious burn injuries.
The company produced the Gloster Gladiator; Hawker Hurricane; Hawker Typhoon; Gloster Meteor and Gloster Javelin and its runway became famous for the first flight of Sir Frank Whittle's turbo-jet aircraft.
It continued to be used by the Royal Air Force until World War II – the Gloster Gladiator being the last British fighter to be equipped with "CC" gear.
During the Second World War during the Namsos Campaign the British No. 263 Squadron RAF operated with 18 Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters from the frozen surface of Lake Lesjaskogsvatnet at Lesjaskog.
No. 263 Squadron RAF operated with 18 Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters from a landing strip on the frozen Lesjaskogsvatnet in late April 1940 as part of the Norwegian campaign.
Air defence guns were few and the air force only had 36 Gloster Gladiator fighters.
He had a Gloster Gladiator aircraft converted into a flying mini-laboratory, and he himself flew some 300 test flights, using himself as a ‘guinea pig’ in his research.
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Detachments of No. 607 Squadron RAF with Gloster Gladiator biplanes were based here along with No. 151 Squadron RAF Hawker Hurricanes before they were withdrawn to English bases in June 1940 during the Battle of France.
The RAF provided a certain extent of fighter cover with the Gloster Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron RAF and the Hawker Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron RAF, although these were too few to continuously patrol the entire front line.
On May 26, 1940 three Royal Air Force Gloster Gladiators, led by Rhodesian-born Flight Lieutenant Caesar Hull, landed and made the first airborne defence for the city.
The equipment consisted of some 200-240 aircraft, including Curtiss Hawk 75As, Fokker D.XXIs, Morane-Saulnier MS.406s, Gloster Gladiator IIs, Curtiss P-40M, LaGG-3, Fokker C.Xs, Westland Lysanders, VL Viima IIs, VL Myrsky IIs, Blackburn Ripon IIFs, and Bristol Blenheim Mk.Is.
While the P.V.3 was praised for its handling and performance during testing at RAF Martlesham Heath, no order resulted, as in the mean time Gloster's Gladiator, another Private Venture design, had been ordered into production.
The aircraft were operated alongside other units assigned to the F 8 Air Force base protecting Stockholm, replacing the obsolete Gloster Gladiators.