In a recent issue of Aeroplane (am I allowed to mention that here) there is a pic of a Sea Gladiator in Malta during the war. The interesting point is that it is clearly fitted with a variable pitch or constant speed (VP or CS) propellor.
The detailed article on the Gladiator, in the same issue, only refers to the wooden 2-blade and metal 3-blade fixed pitch (FP) props.
My father flew Gladiators in Cyprus but he never mentioned any with the VP or CS props. So were these fitted only to Sea Gladiators, to help shorten the carrier T/O run, or was the particular aircraft pictured the subject of a ‘field modification’ possibly using a Blenheim or Hampden prop ?
By: Alex Crawford - 9th January 2005 at 19:49
Hi,
From what I have discovered it was only the Sea Glads on Malta that had VP props. These were the 2-3 that were fitted with Blenheim Mercury engines. The engineering officer on Malta, Wg Cdr A E Louks was extremely adaptable when it came to keeping the various aircraft in the air.
The Blenheim engined Glads, sometimes termed Bleriators, were fueled by a mix of 87 and 100 octane petrol. This raised the boost by 2lb/in and one Glad reached 10,000ft in just under 5 minutes. These revised Glads actually performed beter than some of the Hurricanes that were arriving. Thus the Hurricanes had to be tweeked as well.
At least two Glads, N5520 and N5529, were fitted with Blenheim engines. There was even one Glad fitted with twin guns on the upper wing, but before this was tested it was destroyed in an air raid.
Standard Mk II’s and the Sea Glads were fitted with fixed pitch threebalde props, although most pilots preferred the two blade prop.
daveobyrne
Would your father have any details of his time flying Glads on Cyprus that he would be willing to share? There may be a second edition of my Gladiator book out in 2006 so I am looking for further info/photos.
Alex
By: daveobyrne - 9th January 2005 at 16:01
At least one of the Malta Sea Gladiators was later modified with a Blenheim engine and prop.
Alex is a regular visitor here, I’m sure he can comment further.
Thanks Mike, I’m amazed to hear that a modification such as that would have been carried out ‘in the field’ – it was only a supposition of mine that they might have been from a Blenheim.
Yes, I’d like Alex to comment further on this. the RAF publication “Ferry Pilot’s Notes” is very specific on performance and handling characteristics of all allied types. To carry out a mod like this without full handling trials and acceptance tests – well I’m just lost for words !
The station engineering officer on Malta at that time must have been a formidible guy.
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January 9, 2005 at 2:37 pm