Gladiator in Sad State

Hi all,

I’ll start by thanking all those who have supported the Malta Aviation Museum over the years.

Unfortunately N5520 is on the books of Heritage Malta (HM), the national authority for conservation and preservation, as part of the national collection. I said ‘unfortunately’ as no one at HM has the slightest idea what aircraft preservation is all about and officials from this authority have even belittled the Hurricane’s restoration as ‘it is full of non-original parts’, would you believe!

Meanwhile, the Sea Gladiator languishes at the National War Museum in extremely damp conditions, a stone’s throw away from the sea. It’s situation can be gauged by the attached photos taken a couple of months ago.

I invite members of this board to send their comments directly to Heritage Malta (http://www.heritagemalta.org), the authority that believes our guys at the Malta Aviation Museum are not qualified in restoring the Gladiator! Help save this relic; it has been in these conditions for more than 30 years, and I’m beginning to fear that it will last that much into the future.

The guy who gave them to me is still around, very much alive though not exactly ‘kicking’ at 85! He visited the 1936 show with his father.

Reading through some of those programmes is really fascinating. Consider this quote from the 1937 Hendon Display programme:

‘One striking fact is that the speed and performance of the modern flying machine have made it increasingly difficult to stage any aerial display which can be seen effectively by any great gathering of people assembled on any particular spot. Anyone, for example, trying to stage with Hurricane fighters an item to be seen by people surrounding an aerodrome is confronted by the fact that these machines move through the air at so great a speed that they may be over the flying ground one minute and several miles away the next. it is much the same with the latest high-speed bombers. They, too, are here one moment and gone the next.’

This was a preamble for the discontinuation of the Hendon display after that year, most probably due to the preoccupation with the rearmament programme and the gathering of war clouds on the horizon. Notwithstanding all this, an Empire Air Day was held in 1938 and 1939, as I have programmes for both events.

RJC

Check your PM. Might be able to help

Richard J.C.

BT474 original colours

Back to the original colours of MM.5701 at Hendon; here are two interesting pics.

The top view shows it in its original form, with a colour scheme consisting of Giallo Mimetico (camouflage yellow), Verde Mimetico (camouflage green) and Marrone Mimetico (camouflage brown) top surfaces; undersides would have been in Grigio Mimetico (camouflage grey). The ‘yellow’, in actual fact a sandish light brown, served as an overall base with the other two top colours sprayed on in mottles.

The second views shows how the whole of the top wing has been repainted to eliminate traces of the fasces markings. While in its original form, the ‘brown’ of the original mottles is hardly discernible on the top wing, there is a high contrast in the repainted version, distinctly different from the original in both colour tone and pattern.

Cowling was originally yellow, but this could have been overpainted by the unit before leaving for Belgium, and the colour could have been scraped off to reveal the original camouflage. The rudder was also completely overpainted, though apparently only in two colours.

As it stands at Hendon, MM.5701 is reasonably accurate in colours, though te application of the mottles is a bit too hard-edged. Also the Marrone Mimetico, so evident on the fuselage in the second picture, is missing.

Note also that the UK serial BT474 was originally painted in black.

RJC

Scimitar pics

Hi Albert,

Any chance of providing the serial number for the Scimitar, please?

Unfortunately the pics are too small to see it.

Thanks in advance,

Richard

My profile from Scale Aviation Modeller might help.

Caption: Fairey Barracuda Mk.II, LS628/4F of Nº 831 Squadron, Nº 52 T.B.R. Wing, HMS Furious, which took part in the attack on the ‘Tirpiz’ on April 3, 1944. B Type roundels above wings

Airart

For coanda

This is the typical finish for Meteor prototypes. For further details see ‘Camouflage and Markings Number 11’, by J. Goulding, p. 242. This shows the second prototype, DG203/G, with the bullet fairing added, but without the ventral fin/bumper, and clear canopy aft of opening section (it was solid on DG202/G)