SOARING demand has led an aerodynamic engineer in Thrupp to begin making propeller blades for Spitfire fighter aircraft.

Rupert Wasey, founder of Hercules Propellers, is forever being asked by owners and pilots of Spitfire planes to produce propellers for the famous Second World War fighter.

And when he acquired about 200 original drawings of traditional propeller designs dating back to the 30s he could not believe his luck.

But to be able to produce and sell them his business needs to become a Civil Aviation Authority Certified company - a higher level of certification than it is now. At the moment the only company which has the certification to make Spitfire blades is in Germany.

“Get the irony,” Rupert said. “It’s our British aviation heritage, there are few things that are more British than the Spitfire - but they have German propellers on them.

“Spitfire owners can’t stomach the fact that they have to import them.”

In the Battle of Britain the Supermarine Spitfire made its name as the high-performance aircrafts were tasked with engaging German Luftwaffe fighters.

At this stage Rupert had the will but was yet to find the way to produce the specialist blades – he needed some original information about Spitfire propellers.

“Serendipity would have it that out of the blue a call came from a business called Permali which had previously bought a company called Hordern-Richmond,” he said.

“Hordern-Richmond used to make Spitfire propeller blades in 1953 for Spitfires and all other aircraft but it has stopped making them now.

“Because it had taken on the company Permali had a whole lot of original propeller designs which had been sitting in their offices in Gloucester.

“It was going to throw them away but it offered the hand-drawn plans to us instead and so I inherited this huge archive of designs for technical propellers dating back to the 1930s - over 200 drawings.”

The image from which Rupert is making Spitfire propeller blades is dated March 12, 1942 – right in the middle of the Second World War.

“It would have been hand-traced by women using pen and ink,” said Rupert, who stared Hercules six years ago.

“It’s aviation history. It’s just fantastic to see the designs, the Spitfire was the pinnacle of technology when they invented it. It was the jet engine that did it for the propeller really.”

Not only does he have the original propeller designs but the company which manufactured blades for the Spitfire, Dowty, formerly called Rotol, based at Gloucestershire Airport in Staverton is on board with the project offering more drawings and their advice and help to Hercules.

And Gloucestershire Growth Hub is backing Hercules by giving the company regional growth funding. The grant will see them through the research and development phase until the product is approved.

“Now we need to invest in the process which means a lot of paper work and making sure our manufacturing systems are in place.”

Rupert hopes to have the project finished in 12 months. He has already made the first prototype with multiple layers of compressed wood.

Hercules ships its propellers to countries including Tahiti, Singapore, Belgium and the United States.