Gloster Javelin

what is it?

The Gloster Javelin is a twin-engined all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the Gloster Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s and was the final aircraft design to bear the Gloster name. The Javelin was designed in response to specification F.44/46 during the late 1940s and early 1950s as high-performance night fighter capable of all-weather operations.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 15.9 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,142 km/htop speed
• size 19.6 tmax take-off weight
• built 433made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 75 years ago, in 1951.
• 🏎️Top speed is 8.8× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 15.9 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.8× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1951-11-26

introduced

1956

retired

1968

status

retired

number built

433

role

all-weather fighter-interceptor

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Gloster Aircraft Company

engines

2× Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 7R

crew

2

length

17.3 m

wingspan

15.9 m

height

4.9 m

max take-off weight

19.6 t

top speed

1,142 km/h

range

—

ceiling

16,093 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.