Gloster F.35/35

[Schneiderman]

In December 1935 the Air Ministry issued spec.35/35 for a High Speed Aeroplane capable of development into a fighter. Several companies prepared designs but the spec. was withdrawn before any were tendered.
Henry Folland at Gloster drew up an aircraft based closely on his F.5/34 fighter, and this is described, briefly, in James Goulding’s book Interceptor. When Goulding died his archive of Gloster material was bequeathed to the Jet Age Museum, and they hold just one drawing of the project that shows layout details for the forward fuselage and cockpit. However in his book Goulding describes the fuselage and wings, which suggests that 3-view layout drawings may have been seen by him.
So the question is: does anyone have any clever ideas where these may be located. Not the Jet Age Museum, not at the National Archive, not at the RAF Museum. Also not with authors who have written about the F.5/34 in recent years. In the coming months a series of articles I have written on previously unknown Folland monoplane designs will be published and this fighter design is a bit of a ‘missing link’
Thanks

 

[hesham]

Hi Schneiderman,


that's the first time to know,that Gloster involved in F.35/35 Spec.

 

[Stargazer]

that's the first time to know,that Gloster involved in F.35/35 Spec.

It's also the first time I've heard of Gloster's involvement in the 35/35E specification (no "F." prefix in my sources).

Known tenders are Airspeed A.S.31, Bristol 151, GAL.28, Hawker and Fairey projects. It would be interesting to see this lost Gloster proposal!

 

[Schneiderman]

Yes indeed, the spec. was issued as 35/35 yet on the one known Gloster drawing it is named as F.35/35. Gloster, along with Hawker and Bristol, clearly concentrated on the fighter aspects of the requirement rather than the high speed research side.

 

[Jemiba]

... In the coming months a series of articles I have written on previously unknown Folland monoplane designs will be published ...

Can you already give a clue, where to look for them ?

 

[Schneiderman]

Once I have confirmation from the publisher I will let you know.

 

[Hardrada55]

Gloster F.35/35 revamped from Mercury to Bristol Taurus. source: RALPH PEGRAM «Folland's Forgotten Monoplanes. Part 2: Diversification and Disillusionment »« The Aviation Historian »10, via the Russian language website "Alternate History, "http://alternathistory.com/zabytye-monoplany-genri-follanda-chast-6-vozvrashchenie-k-istrebitelyam. Apologies.

 

[Schneiderman]

This is taken from my article in The Aviation Historian and the 35/35 aircraft is not just a re-engine version of the F5/34 fighter

 

[Jemiba]

PLEASE, ALWAYS mention the source of a drawing, the forum rules
are mandatory in this regard !
Here the title of the article is within the file name, but that's definitely not
enough ! And it cannot be the authors task to put such things right ... :

 

[Grey Havoc]

With regard as to the Gloster F.5/34:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTkxftXVTSU

Arguably, the Fleet Air Arm could have really used this early in the war.