A collection of colour photographs of the Gloster Javelin, the world’s first twin-engined delta winged jet fighter.

A collection of colour photographs of the Gloster Javelin, the world’s first twin-engined delta winged jet fighter.

Designed as an all weather interceptor that could take on high altitude Soviet bombers and as a replacement for the ageing Meteor night-fighters, the Javelin first flew in 1951 with production starting in 1954 and the first examples arriving on strength in 1956. It was produced in nine different variants with different tweaks (such as the all moving tailplane on the Mk.4), different armaments (such as an increase of missiles on the FAW.7) and different avionics (such as the use of American AI22 tail-mounted radar on the FAW.2). The last examples were withdrawn from service in 1967 and at the peak of usage it equipped 14 RAF squadrons.

It was the last aircraft built by the famous Gloster company, who created famous aircraft such as the Gladiator biplane fighter and Meteor jet fighter.