Tuck's Gladiator Mk II

This page is about the premium British fighter Tuck's Gladiator Mk II. For other versions, see Gladiator (Family).

Tuck's Gladiator Mk II

Tuck's Gladiator Mk II

Britain

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.3	1.0	1.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Fighter

Purchase:250

Show in game

Description

The Tuck's Gladiator Mk II is a premium rank I British fighter with a battle rating of 1.3 (AB/SB) and 1.0 (RB). It was introduced in Update 1.31. The plane is painted with the camouflage scheme of British pilot Robert S. Tuck who served in the RAF with No.65 Squadron during the interwar period.

General info

Flight performance

Max speed

at 4 420 m414 km/h

Turn time15 s

Max altitude10 211 m

EngineBristol Mercury VIIIA/AS

TypeRadial

Cooling systemAir

Take-off weight2 t

Tuck's Gladiator Mk II performs identically to the regular Gladiator Mk II. This means it has good speed an acceleration for a bi-plane, and like most other biplanes is far better at turning than the monoplanes it faces; it is also one of a limited number of biplanes with flaps, which are hard to break off and can be used to further improve turning performance.

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at 4,420 m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	399	386	10211	16.7	17.7	13.0	13.0	232
Upgraded	431	414		15.3	16.0	18.8	15.7

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
X	✓	✓	X	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
560	560	N/A	469	320	~11	~5

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 240	< 180	< 330	> 190

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
4,100 m	810 hp	850 hp

Survivability and armour

Crew1 person

Speed of destruction

Structural560 km/h

Gear560 km/h

The Gladiator is extremely weak and vulnerable to enemy fire. It does not sport any armour protection, and thus the critical components (engine, pilot, fuel tanks, etc) are unprotected, even from low-calibre machine guns

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB323

RB139

SB136

Total cost of modifications5 020

505

Crew training150

Experts1 000

Aces20

Research Aces145 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 20 / 20 / 70 %

2 × 75 / 75 / 75 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Fuselage repair Radiator Research: 600 Cost: 60 40 Compressor Research: 660 Cost: 65 45 Wings repair Engine Research: 1 100 Cost: 110 70 Engine injection Research: 1 400 Cost: 145 95	Airframe Cover	bmg303_belt_pack Research: 600 Cost: 60 40 bmg303_new_gun Research: 660 Cost: 65 45

Armaments

Offensive armament

Weapon 14 x 7.7 mm Browning machine gun

Ammunition2 000 rounds

Fire rate1 000 shots/min

The Tuck's Gladiator Mk II is armed with:

• 2 x 7.7 mm Browning machine guns, fuselage-mounted (600 rpg = 1,200 total)
• 2 x 7.7 mm Browning machine guns, wing-mounted (400 rpg = 800 total)

Usage in battles

Try to avoid enemy monoplanes if you are at an altitude disadvantage since you will bleed a lot of speed in combat. Instead, begin climbing up to 2,000 - 3,500 meters and only attempt to assault enemy aircraft when they are flying below you and are alone. Another reason to fly high is the engine temperature. When diving, turn your engine off ('I' key by default) which will not only prevent the engine over-revving, but also cool your engine rapidly and fly silently, making the enemy unaware of your presence.

Simulator:

The Gladiator is a lovely plane to learn with in Sim. It can be used in turnfighting and bomber interception. Like in AB and RB, it is excellent in turning tightly and continuously, and it has lovely low-speed handling and low stall speeds, making it a great starter plane for Sim. Also it has a decent reflector sight for an early biplane, unlike other early planes with those awful telescope-like sight, which is an advantage in all engagements. However it does have its drawbacks: the rather big nose blocks the visibility a lot, offering very poor over-the-nose visibility which is a disadvantage in a turn fight, because when leading a shot the enemy will always get obstructed by the engine, making the player guess the shot. Also its upper wings and various frames and strings between the wings will get in the way when you look aside.

Note: it is recommended to set the convergence within 300 m, with vertical convergence on, because the majority of turnfights happen at that range or closer.

Before engaging a fight, it is better to have an altitude advantage first. When approaching the fight try to figure out which is your teammate and which is the enemy, to avoid going for a second pass, as the energy retention of the Gladiator is rather slow. Also pick your target carefully. For easier aiming, you want to go for those unmanoeuvrable twin engine aircraft like Ju 88 or Ki-45, or bombers if there are any. Given the bad forward visibility of the Gladiator, these are the best options as they are quite slow and sluggish, and are a bigger target to hit. However getting hits on them doesn't mean good damage, so you must be patient. When dealing with fighters, it is way harder to aim. The elevator control of the Gladiator is quite sensitive, giving it good manoeuvrability, but at the same time, bad handling. The Gladiator will respond in a very fast turn upon moving your stick/mouse by a little bit, which makes tracking nimble planes quite hard. But once you get used to it, try to lure every enemy into a turnfight, as that is where the Gladiator shines. Quite a bit of bullets are required to effectively damage the enemy so you must be patient. If you find an enemy at your six, utilise your great turning ability and simply do tight turns, most monoplanes won't be able to cut inside your turn and they might disengage. However with biplanes you will need some defensive manoeuvres like barrel rolls.

If you are not very experienced in Sim, you can also go for even bigger targets (bombers) for easier aiming. However you want to be more careful when hunting bombers, since with the Sim control (whether it be mouse joystick or a real stick) the plane will manoeuvre much more gently, making itself a great target for the bomber's gunners. DO NOT follow behind a bomber's six unless you are sure that its tail gunners are unconscious. Chasing behind a bomber makes yourself stationary for the tail gunners, and you will be showered with bullets. Your big radial engine will usually get damaged. Instead, before attacking, get an altitude advantage over the bomber by flying around 2 km above it. The bomber should only fill up about 1/6 of your gunsight. The best position for an attack is at the bomber's high six so you can adjust the lead much easier. Dive at the bomber, but not directly at it, try to predict where you two will crash by imagining yourself as a missile, that's where you should aim at (deflection shooting). To maximise the damage it is better to aim for their wings and engines, as the fuselage usually soaks up quite some bullets. Only fire when the bomber passes in front of your guns. This short window might seem inadequate to do anything, but with a accurate burst on the engine the 4 MG can at least damage it. With an engine damaged most bombers cannot go far.

Enemies worth noting:

Ki-27, N1K1, He 51, I-15, etc:

Those commonly seen planes are equally good at turnfights and will be a hard target to down since they are very small and agile. To deal with them you need to practice leading and deflection shots, plus manoeuvres like barrel rolls and scissors. They still need plenty of bullets to get damaged, so these kind of targets are the hardest to kill and requires great skills from the player. Specific notes to the I-15: do not try to out-turn it. Use the Gladiator's speed advantage over it.

Do 17 Z:

This early twin engine plane always shows up as an AI controlled recon aircraft that you have to down, which is a good news as AI won't manoeuvre aggressively. However this plane is extremely durable for the Gladiator's weak MGs. When it shows up as an AI, deflection shots are not recommended as the small shooting windows really does nothing. Instead, try disabling its 2 gunners first, then just sit behind it and burst on its wings and engines. When attacking the gunners try to not get your engine damaged by pulling evasive manoeuvres as soon as the bullets come close, since the Do 17 might outrun the Gladiator in a level flight if your engine is damaged.

He 100, Bf 109 E, He 112:

These early monoplanes might not be able to out-turn the Gladiator, but they can easily outrun it as the Gladiator is rather slow. These fighters will usually BnZ you, so you must constantly look above and behind you. If they are diving on you, use your roll rate and dodge under their negative G areas. Most players will try to follow up, if not immediately losing track of you. Several dodges might make them impatient and give up BnZ, and if they really start to turnfight with you, they are already dead.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Separate	Not controllable 1 gear	Not controllable

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Premium aircraft
• Good manoeuvrability for its tier
• Low stall speed
• Excellent max speed
• Decent for boom & zoom attacks

Cons:

• Extremely weak 7.7 mm machine guns, despite having four of them
• Bleeds a lot of speed in sharp turns and extreme manoeuvres
• Fixed pitch propeller - engine will overheat when over-revving
• Not suitable for dogfights, especially against monoplanes
• No armour whatsoever

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

In-game description

The Gloster Gladiator biplane fighter was the best and the last biplane in service with the British RAF.

This aircraft, Serial No. K8015, was part of the 'B' Flight of the No. 65 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was piloted by Robert Stanford Tuck, a famous British ace.

In 1935, Tuck entered service with the British RAF, and by 1942 he had 29 enemy aircraft destroyed and 2 shared destroyed, in addition to 6 hostile aircraft damaged and 1 shared damaged, plus 6 probably destroyed.

In January 1942, his plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and Tuck executed a forced landing in France, where the Germans took him captive. In February of 1945, however, he managed to escape to meet the approaching Red Army and soon returned to his homeland.

Tuck was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Force Cross, and the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), and was was Mentioned in Despatches three times.

Media

The Shooting Range #40 - Pages of History section at 05:13 discusses the Gladiator.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• Official data sheet - more details about the performance (Russian Forum)