Mediation in battle over wartime air defender

A mediator has been engaged to resolve the dispute between Heritage Malta and the Aviation Museum over the future location of a 1930s biplane which helped to defend Malta at the beginning of World War II.

A meeting later this month should discuss the future of the Gloster Gladiator, also known as Faith.

The Gloster Gladiator is one of the artefacts at the National War Museum. The Aviation Museum has offered to restore and house the aircraft but its proposal has been met with opposition from Heritage Malta, under whose responsibility the National War Museum falls.

During the forthcoming meeting, the Aviation Museum will give details of its restoration and conservation techniques, director general Ray Polidano said. He said the meeting would also discuss a cooperation agreement between the two organisations.

Sixty-six per cent of respondents in an online poll by The Times had voted for the fuselage of the Gladiator to be moved to the Aviation Museum.

A Heritage Malta spokesman said: "The aircraft is crucial for the display and for the National War Museum. It is a unique artefact... Heritage Malta also has plans for the War Museum in general and the Gloster Gladiator in particular".

Mr Polidano said that if Heritage Malta agreed to loan the Gladiator to the Aviation Museum, the aircraft would be restored - a process that would take about 10 years and, although it would remain Heritage Malta's property, it would be housed at the Aviation Museum in Ta' Qali.

Mr Polidano said the aircraft had a good basic shell but needed to be stripped and rebuilt. When it was "restored" in 1974 to be used in a Royal Air Force (RAF) commemoration, the Maltese government had loaned it to the RAF on condition they would do some work on it.

Although the RAF had gone overboard with the work, Mr Polidano said, they did not study the dimensions, colour and other matters to see how the restoration should be carried out. So the aircraft as it is now is not a faithful model.

Should the aircraft not be transferred, he said, the Aviation Museum was in danger of losing a set of wings donated by the UK for the Gladiator's restoration. This would surely be a lost opportunity. But Heritage Malta said that, although it respected different opinions from all quarters, it strongly believed that letters featured in The Times and elsewhere tended to give only a one-sided version of events - that of the Aviation Museum.

When asked whether it had plans to restore the Gladiator, the Heritage Malta spokesman said the Gladiator was not the only artefact that needed attention and conservation at the National War Museum, and this would eventually be tackled at the proper time and in the proper manner.

Moreover, Heritage Malta was willing to collaborate with anyone who might need to conduct research on the Gladiator at the National War Museum before and after its conservation.