Warbird Information Exchange

Did the Gladiator ever have a nickname? I've never seen it referred to as anything but "the Gladiator."

Oops! I was confused.

Gladbag is one I've heard but no idea whether that originates from its 1930s RAF service or is a rather more modern soubriquet.

makes a certain amount of sense, what with the Fairey Swordfish being called the Stringbag...

Given the first Gladiator's only entered squadron service 10 months before the first Hurricane's entered squadron service, it didn't really have long enough in front line service to acquire any nickname!

One of the fabled "Faith, Hope, and Charity" Gladiators was up-gunned with an additional pair of .303's (I guess that would be six in total) and was christened "The Bloodiator". Apparently it was for jumping on Stukas at the end of their dives.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

I don’t think it was called the “ Gladbag.” I built a model of the Gladiator almost fifty years ago, and have done a lot of reading since then and never seen any other nicknames. Gladiator is very cool, hard to improve upon for a name.
The Fairey Swordfish was fabric covered and drawn up or “ pinched” in the cockpit area. It reminded folks of a style of purse, handbag, or stringbag popular at the time.