Gladiator G-GLAD
The Fighter Collection’s Gladiator, N5903, was the last of 25 Mk.II aircraft built under Contract 773235/38 and delivered in 1939. It is believed that she briefly served with 141 Sqn in October 1939 at Grangemouth, west of Edinburgh, and was then allocated to the Air Ministry Development Pool as a flight trials platform in December 1939. Following this, it is understood that N5903 was placed in long-term storage with 27 Maintenance Unit at Shawbury in May 1940, until she moved on to 8 MU at Little Rissington in October 1943 and then subsequently to 61 Operational Training Unit at Rednal in November 1943.
N5903, along with her Shuttleworth sibling Mk.I L8032 was earmarked for meteorological survey work and returned to Gloster at Hucclecote for conversion in January 1944. This conversion did not happen as more modern types took on these duties and the two Gladiators were left forlorn at Hucclecote, which was probably what saved them from being scrapped.
The next few years saw them remain with Gloster, somewhat forgotten whilst the main focus was on the war effort. After the war in February 1946, it is known that famous wartime Ace and future test pilot, R P ‘Bee’ Beaumont, flew our Gladiator, N5903, on four occasions.
In 1950 the Gladiators were handed over to Air Service Training for ground instructional use with N5903 going to Ansty, near Leicester, and L8032 going to Hamble. When the Ansty School closed N5903 saw the pair on a visit to Hamble, and as an ex. Fleet Air Arm Sea Gladiator pilot during the war he had an affinity with the type. Following a successful bid of £1 each, he became the proud owner of a pair of somewhat forlorn Gladiators.
Viv Bellamy moved the pair of biplanes to the nearby Eastleigh base of his air charter company, Flightway. It was here that that the task of getting one of the Gladiators back into airworthy condition, unfortunately, N5903 was chosen as the donor aircraft in favour of L8032, even giving up her Bristol Mercury VIII engine that had just eight hours logged since being installed.
Following being ‘cherry picked’ to support the successful rebuild of L8032 that culminated in her flight in 1952, N5903 languished in the back of the hangar until both aircraft were sold to Gloster for a token sum of £50. L8032 attended displays across the country for the next few years in the hands of Gloster. Little, however, is known about the movements of N5903 in this intervening period. It is assumed she accompanied L8032 when she was presented to the Shuttleworth Trust in 1960. In 1971 N5903 was loaned by the Shuttleworth Trust to the Fleet Air Arm at Yeovilton. She was in a sad state when she arrived at Yeovilton, with no engine, propeller, or spinner.
Following refurbishment work, the Gladiator was placed on static display in 1978 at Yeovilton in a spurious Fleet Air Arm colour scheme as Sea Gladiator N2276, complete with a dummy arrestor hook under the rear fuselage, wooden flaps and a glass-fibre spinner.
Following a purchase from the Shuttleworth Collection, the Gladiator joined The Fighter Collection fleet in 1994, arriving by road at Duxford from Yeovilton on December 1. Due to other priorities within the collection, the Gladiator had to take her place in ‘the queue’ and progress with the rebuild was initially slow. By 2004 she started to show signs of real progress following the results of concerted efforts by the TFC Engineering Team and the contracting out of the fuselage woodwork to Skysport Engineering. In 2006 the rebuilt wings were trial-fitted to the fuselage which had her looking much more Gladiator-like once again. 2007 saw the fabric work completed by Vintage Fabrics, who also applied the wonderful 72 Sqn scheme she wears today. As an aside 72 Sqn was the first frontline RAF squadron to be equipped with Gladiators at Hornchurch, Essex in March 1937. The Squadron colour scheme consisted of red and blue bars along the fuselage sides and on the upper surface of the top wing, all of which are faithfully replicated on N5903. In addition to these markings, the Gladiator also wears the blue fin and forward tailplanes denoting the personal aircraft of the ‘B’ Flight commander. By late 2007 the re-covered and painted wings were refitted, this time permanently, to the fuselage and N5903 became the main topic of question from the public, mainly “when will she fly?” to which the answer was always a cautious “when she is ready”.
The first post-restoration flight for the Gladiator was a low-key affair occurring in the week running up to Flying Legends 2008, on Thursday 10th July, with TFC Chief Pilot Pete Kynsey (PK) the man in the hot seat. Only a few days later N5903 looked resplendent sitting in the sunshine on the Flightline garnering a great deal of attention from the visitors to the world-famous airshow. It was on the Sunday of the airshow with the Flightline walk just about to close, when PK could be found once again strapping himself in and to the delight of the gathered crowds N5903 taxied out and took off for a test flight. Unfortunately due to a number of factors, these were the only flights N5903 undertook and she was returned to the hangar. Over the next few years, she underwent some minor work which culminated in a test flight on Wednesday 1st May 2013, with PK at the controls once again. Since then it has been a popular performer, even undertaking the ‘Joker’ routine at Legends on more than one occasion!
Gloster Gladiator II
The Gloster Gladiator is a British-built biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) (as the Sea Gladiator variant) and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s.
Developed privately as the Gloster SS.37, it was the RAF's last biplane fighter aircraft and was rendered obsolete by newer monoplane designs even as it was being introduced. Though often pitted against more formidable foes during the early days of the Second World War, it acquitted itself reasonably well in combat.
The Gladiator saw action in almost all theatres during the Second World War, with a large number of air forces, some of them on the Axis side. The RAF used it in France, Norway, Greece, the defence of Malta, the Middle East, and the brief Anglo-Iraqi War (during which the Royal Iraqi Air Force was similarly equipped). Other countries deploying the Gladiator included China against Japan, beginning in 1938; Finland (along with Swedish volunteers) against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War; Sweden as a neutral noncombatant (although Swedish volunteers fought for Finland against USSR as stated above); and Norway, Belgium, and Greece resisting Axis invasion of their respective lands.
South African pilot Marmaduke "Pat" Pattle was the top Gladiator ace with 15 victories with the type.
During the 1920s, Britain's air defences had been based around interceptor aircraft capable of flying only for short ranges and at speeds of 150 to 200 miles per hour (240 to 320 km/h), but by 1930, figures within the Air Ministry were keen to supersede these aircraft. In particular, some dissatisfaction had arisen with the level of reliability experienced with the 'one pilot, two machine guns' design formula previously used; the guns were often prone to jams and being unreliable. The Air Ministry's technical planning committee formulated Specification F.7/30, which sought a new aircraft capable of a maximum speed of at least 250 mph (400 km/h), an armament of no fewer than four machine guns, and such handling that same fighter could be used by both day and night squadrons. Gloster being already engaged with the development of the Gloster Gauntlet, did not initially respond to the specification, which later proved to be beneficial.
The specification had also encouraged the use of the new Rolls-Royce Goshawk evaporatively cooled inline engine; many of the submissions produced by various aviation companies in response accordingly featured the Goshawk engine. However, the Goshawk engine proved to be unreliable, mainly due to its overcomplex and underdeveloped cooling system, and unsuited to use on fighter aircraft and this outcome stalled the development of the aircraft intended to use it. A further stumbling point for many of the submitted designs was the placement of the machine gun breeches within the arm's reach of the pilot. At the same time, the development of monoplane fighters such as the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire cast doubt over the future viability of the requirement altogether.
Gloster recognised that instead of developing an all-new design from scratch, the existing Gauntlet fighter could be used as a basis for a contender to meet Specification F.7/30. Development of what would become the Gladiator began as a private venture, internally designated as the SS.37, at Gloster, by a design team headed by H.P. Folland, who soon identified various changes to increase the aircraft's suitability to conform with the demands of the specification. Making use of wing-design techniques developed by Hawker Aircraft, the new fighter adopted single-bay wings in place of the two-bay wings of the Gauntlet, and two pairs of interplane struts were also dispensed with as a drag-reduction measure. The Bristol Mercury M.E.30 radial engine, capable of generating 700 hp (520 kW), was selected to power the SS.37, which provided a performance boost over the preceding Gauntlet. Another design choice was the fitting of a cantilever main undercarriage, which incorporated Dowty internally sprung wheel struts.
In spring 1934, Gloster embarked on the construction of a single SS.37 prototype. On 12 September 1934, the SS.37 prototype conducted its maiden flight, piloted by Gloster chief test pilot Gerry Sayer. Initially powered by a 530 hp (400 kW) Mercury IV engine, the prototype was quickly re-equipped with a more powerful 645 hp (481 kW) Mercury VIS engine. During flight tests, the prototype attained a top speed of 242 mph (389 km/h; 210 kn) while carrying the required four .303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns (two synchronised Vickers guns in the fuselage and two Lewis guns under the lower wing). According to aviation author Francis K. Mason, the Air Ministry were sceptical about the aircraft achieving such performance from a radial engine design, so funded a protracted series of evaluation trials.
On 3 April 1935, the prototype was transferred to the RAF, receiving the designation K5200, and commenced operational evaluations of the type. Around the same time, Gloster proceeded to plan a further improved version, featuring an 840 hp (630 kW) Mercury IX engine, a two-blade wooden fixed-pitch propeller, improved wheel discs, and a fully enclosed cockpit. K5200 was later used to trial modifications for production aircraft, such as the addition of a sliding hood for the pilot.
In June 1935, production plans for the aircraft were proposed; two weeks later, a production specification, Specification F.14/35, had been rapidly drawn up, partially prompted by events in continental Europe, such as the invasion of Abyssinia by Fascist Italy and the rise of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany, in response to which the British government mandated an urgent expansion of the RAF to counter the emerging threats. This culminated in an initial order for 23 aircraft. On 1 July 1935, the aircraft formally received the name, Gladiator.
Manufacturing of the Gladiator was started at Gloster's Hucclecote facility. Production of the initial batch was performed simultaneously, leading to many aircraft being completed around the same time. On 16 February 1937, K6129, the first production Gladiator, was formally accepted by the RAF; on 4 March 1937, K6151, the last aircraft of the initial batch, was delivered. In September 1935, a follow-up order of 180 aircraft was also received from the Air Ministry; this order had the proviso that all aircraft had to be delivered before the end of 1937.
The first version, the Gladiator Mk I, was delivered in July 1936, becoming operational in January 1937. The Mk II soon followed, the main differences being a slightly more powerful Mercury VIIIAS engine with Hobson mixture control boxes and a partly automatic boost-control carburettor, driving a Fairey fixed-pitch three-blade metal propeller, instead of the two-blade wooden one of the Mark I. All MK II Gladiators also carried Browning 0.303-inch machine guns (licence-manufactured by the BSA company in Birmingham) in place of the Vickers-Lewis combination of the MK I. A modified Mk II, the Sea Gladiator, was developed for the Fleet Air Arm, with an arrestor hook, catapult attachment points, a strengthened airframe and an underbelly fairing for a dinghy lifeboat, all for operations aboard aircraft carriers. Of the 98 aircraft built as, or converted to, Sea Gladiators, 54 were still in service by the outbreak of the Second World War.
The Gladiator was the last British biplane fighter to be manufactured, and the first to feature an enclosed cockpit. It possessed a top speed of about 257 mph (414 km/h; 223 kn), yet even as the Gladiator was introduced, it was already being eclipsed by new-generation monoplane fighters, such as the RAF Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, and the Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109. In total, 747 aircraft were built (483 RAF, 98 RN), with 216 being exported to 13 countries, some of which were from the total allotted to the RAF. Gladiators were sold to Belgium, China, Egypt, Finland, Free France, Greece, Iraq, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and Sweden.