After having finally read James Hollands book “Fortress Malta an Isand Under Siege 1940 – 1943″, I noted one comment on the aircraft operating in that theatre that I found hard to believe!
Referring to damaged and operational Sea Gladiators then being part of the “Malta Flight” and I Quote:-
“Under the guidance of their engineering expert, Wing Commander Louks, wings were chopped off one and added to another, engines were souped up in an effort to increase power and speed; new fuselages were hasity constructed. By pinching parts from damaged twin-engined Blenheim bombers, their performance was so increased it was superior to those of the two Hurricanes that reached the Island later that day” (may have been 21st June 1940)
Quoted from Chapter three, page 44
Any comments folks, much as I love the old Gladiator I find it hard to believe that it could in an operational sense be souped-up to the degree claimed?
By: Wessex Fan - 11th May 2008 at 23:24
Hi Alex,
Mk I Trop Hurricane — top speed 317 Miles per Hour,
Service Ceiling 33,000 Ft
Time to 20,000 Ft, 9.5 Minutes
I know that what was in fact second hand equipment was passed on to other theatre’s of operation, in many cases according to contemporary accounts “in less than perfect condition”. Were all aircraft sent out to the middle east tropicalised before leaving Britain, I have seen at least one picture that would suggest not!
It would appear that by the end of July 1940 it was being found almost impossible to keep the Hurricanes that had arrived in June airworthy, enter the Gladiators again!
Eric
By: ...starfire - 11th May 2008 at 23:04
Probably not as much as 80mph. You have to remember that the Hurricanes that initally arrived on the island were very much second hand and had the volkes filter under the nose. The hot dusty conditions would also have had a detrimental effect on their Merlin engines as well.
I remember a passage from “Onward to Malta” (or so) by Tom Neil. He wrote that sometime in 1941 the squadron was earmarked to move to Malta and exchanged its MkII-Hurricanes for “brand new Hurricanes. Brand new Mk Is!”
As you said, add chunky Vokes-Filters and Malta´s climatic conditions and see what you end up with …
By: Moggy C - 11th May 2008 at 22:38
They did experiment with mounting an extra two guns on the Gladiator upper mainplane 1918 style.
I can’t remember exactly the outcome, but I don’t recall it ever making combat.
Moggy
By: Alex Crawford - 11th May 2008 at 22:32
Hi Eric,
Probably not as much as 80mph. You have to remember that the Hurricanes that initally arrived on the island were very much second hand and had the volkes filter under the nose. The hot dusty conditions would also have had a detrimental effect on their Merlin engines as well.
So I would say that the extra performance gained on the Gladiator would probably just about match the lower performance of the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes advantage would have lay in its eight gun armament as compared to the Gladiators four guns.
Alex
By: Wessex Fan - 11th May 2008 at 21:11
Hi,
Reading further into the Malta Gladiators Louks and his team worked wonders to keep these aircraft in the air. On one occassion they took two wrecks and ended up with one flyable aircraft.
I think at that time the rule was you kept the aircraft in the air no matter what and you did all you could to keep them there.
Alex
Alex All you have said is very true,but could the engineers have increased the top speed at any altitude by a margin of something like 80 miles per hour!
Eric
By: Alex Crawford - 11th May 2008 at 20:57
Hi,
I’ve read a similar report in Malta the Hurricane Years by Chris Shores. The engineering officer, Wg Cdr Louks states that they used Blenheim engines, altered the pitch angle of their propellors and blended 87 and 100 octane fuel, which raised the boost by 2lb/in. The first trial took the Gladiator, N5529, to 10,000ft in 5 mins. This aircraft has also been known as the Bleriator.
He also carried out similar adjustments with the Hurricanes to increase their performance.
Reading further into the Malta Gladiators Louks and his team worked wonders to keep these aircraft in the air. On one occassion they took two wrecks and ended up with one flyable aircraft.
I think at that time the rule was you kept the aircraft in the air no matter what and you did all you could to keep them there.
Alex
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May 11, 2008 at 7:26 pm