Gloster Gladiators - Duxford Battle of Britain Airshow 2023

The Shuttleworth Collection's Gloster Gladiator, L8032 (currently appearing as K7985), G-AMRK and The Fighter Collection's Gloster Gladiator Mk.II, N5903, G-GLAD, displaying at The Imperial War Museum, Duxford, on the Saturday of the Battle of Britain Airshow 2023. For the opening pass they are accompanied by the Shuttleworth Collection's Avro Anson.
L8032 was the last production Gladiator I built in 1937 but not actually assembled until 1938. In 1948 it, together with Gladiator II N5903, was bought by Glosters. In 1950 the two were delivered to Air Service Training for use as instructional airframes at Hamble and Ansty. When Ansty closed the aircraft were bought by Viv Bellamy for a nominal sum. L8032 was restored using the engine from N5903. L8032 was bought back by Glosters in 1953 and in 1956 returned to full military specification in 72 Squadron markings, albeit with the fictitious serial K8032. When Gloster Aircraft closed the Gladiator was presented to The Shuttleworth Collection for safe keeping on 7 November 1960.
In 1990 the aircraft was repainted in a camouflage scheme, with No 247 Squadron codes and wore these until a fabric re-cover was carried out in 1996. When finished, the Gladiator emerged in Norwegian colours for filming.
In 2007 it re-appeared as K7985 of 73 Squadron RAF, the aircraft flown by the WWII Ace ‘Cobber’ Kain at the 1937 Hendon Air Pageant.
Gladiator, N5903, was the last of 25 Mk.II aircraft built under Contract 773235/38 and delivered in 1939. It is believed that it briefly served with 141 Squadron 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. After this it was placed in long-term storage with 27 Maintenance Unit (MU), Shawbury in May 1940, until moved on to 8 MU, Little Rissington in October 1943 and then to 61 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at Rednal in November 1943.
N5903, along with her Shuttleworth sibling Mk.I L8032, were earmarked for meteorological survey work and returned to Gloster at Hucclecote for conversion in January 1944. This conversion didn't happen and the two Gladiators remained unused at Hucclecote.
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 Viv Bellamy saw the pair and purchased both aircraft for £1 each.
He moved them to the nearby Eastleigh base of his air charter company, Flightway. It was here that the task began of getting one of the Gladiators back into airworthy condition. 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.
N5903 remained hangared, until both aircraft were sold back to Gloster's for £50 and L8032 attended displays across the UK for the next few years. It is assumed N5903 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 Museum at Yeovilton. She was in a sad state when she arrived, with no engine, propeller, or spinner.
Following refurbishment work N5903 was placed on museum 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 purchase from the Shuttleworth Collection the Gladiator joined The Fighter Collection (TFC) fleet in 1994, arriving by road at Duxford from Yeovilton on December 1. By 2004 restoration of N5903 was progressing, following concerted efforts by the TFC Engineering Team and contracting out of the fuselage woodwork to Skysport Engineering. In 2006 the rebuilt wings were trial-fitted to the fuselage. 2007 saw the fabric work completed by Vintage Fabrics, who also applied the 72 Squadron colours worn today. 72 Squadron was the first frontline RAF squadron to be equipped with Gladiators at Hornchurch, Essex in March 1937. In addition to these markings N5903 also wears the blue fin and forward tailplanes of the personal aircraft of the ‘B’ Flight commander. By late 2007 the re-covered and painted wings were refitted permanently.
The first post restoration flight was on Thursday 10th July 2008, with TFC Chief Pilot Pete Kynsey. On Sunday 13 July N5903 taxied out and took off for a test flight during the Flying Legends Airshow. 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 another test flight on Wednesday 1st May, 2013. Since then N5903 was a regular performer at airshows, until an engine problem grounded it during summer 2017. N5903 flew again once again on 6 June 2023, for the first time in 6 years.
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