Hunting Aircraft was a British

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

that produced light

training aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristic ...

and the initial design that would evolve into the

BAC 1-11 The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat air ...

jet airliner A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have twinjet, two or quadjet, four jet engines; trijet, three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Air ...

. Founded as Percival Aircraft Company in 1933, the company later moved to

Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...

, England. It was eventually taken over by the

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric, English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane ...

(BAC) in 1960.

History

The company was formed as Percival Aircraft Co. in

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...

in 1933 by Edgar Percival with Lt. Cdr E.B.W. Leak to produce his own designs. The first aircraft was the

Percival Gull The Percival Gull was a British single-engined monoplane, first flown in 1932. It was successful as a fast company transport, racing aircraft and long-range record breaker. It was developed into the Vega Gull and the Proctor. Design and develo ...

- the prototype was built for Percival by the

British Aircraft Company The British Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Maidstone. It was founded by C H Lowe-Wylde and produced gliders and light aircraft during the 1930s. B.A.C. Ltd was registered as a Limited Company on 4 March 1931; direc ...

and production aircraft by

Parnall Aircraft Parnall was a British aircraft manufacturer that evolved from a wood-working company before the First World War to a significant designer of military and civil aircraft into the 1940s. It was based in the west of England and was originally known ...

. The company moved to

Gravesend Airport Gravesend Airport, located southeast of Gravesend town centre, Kent and west of Rochester. It was operated from 1932 until 1956. It was initially a civil airfield, and became a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Gravesend during the Second W ...

in Kent, where it could build the Gull itself.Grey 1972, pp. 64c–65c. Restructured in 1936, it became Percival Aircraft Ltd, and moved to

Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, England, situated east of the town centre, and is the fourth-busiest airport serving London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Limited, a company wholly owned by ...

. The company became part of the Hunting Group in 1944. Percival, who had resigned from the board to serve in the

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force ( ...

during the war sold his remaining interest in the company at that point. From 1947 some internal components of Britain's Blue Danube atomic bomb were designed and manufactured by Percival Aircraft, in collaboration with the High Explosive Research project at

Fort Halstead Fort Halstead was a research site of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. It is situated on the crest of the Kentish North Downs, overlooking the town of Sevenoaks, southeast o ...

, Kent. It changed its name to Hunting Percival Aircraft in 1954 and then to Hunting Aircraft in 1957. In 1960 the company was taken over by the

(BAC), itself formed earlier that same year through the merger of the

Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable ...

English Electric The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial el ...

and

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

. BAC later became part of

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...

, now

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

Aircraft

;Percival Aircraft The first Percival type to be allocated a "P" number was the P.40 Prentice. Previous designs (including unflown designs) were unofficially allocated such a number by the Percival Sales Manager in 1944 when Percival was acquired by the Hunting Group. However, this was "purely a cosmetic exercise" and such numbers have no actual basis in history. *

Percival Vega Gull The Percival Vega Gull was a 1930s British, four-seater touring aircraft built by Percival Aircraft Limited. It was a single-engine low-wing , wood-and-fabric monoplane with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage. Design and development Built by Pe ...

Percival Mew Gull The Percival Mew Gull is a British racing aircraft of the 1930s. It is a small single-engined single-seat low-wing monoplane of wooden construction, normally powered by a six-cylinder de Havilland Gipsy Six piston engine. During the second ha ...

* Percival Q.6 Petrel *

Percival Proctor The Percival Proctor is a British radio trainer and communications aircraft of the Second World War. The Proctor is a single-engined, low-wing monoplane with seating for three or four, depending on the model. Design and development The Proctor ...

* Percival P.40 Prentice * Percival P.48 Merganser * Percival P.50 Prince * Percival P.54 Survey Prince * Percival P.56 Provost * Percival P.66 Pembroke * Percival P.66 President * Percival P.74 8-seat experimental gas turbine/tipjet powered helicopter *P.87 fixed wing DC-3 replacement, not built ;Hunting Aircraft * Hunting H.126 – an experimental

STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that can takeoff/land on short runways. Many STOL-designed aircraft can operate on airstrips with harsh conditions (such as high altitude or ice). STOL aircraft, including tho ...

jet aircraft for investigation of

blown flap Blown flaps, blown wing or jet flaps are powered aerodynamic high-lift devices used on the wings of certain aircraft to improve their low-speed flight characteristics. They use air blown through nozzles to shape the airflow over the rear edge of ...

s * Hunting Percival P.84 Jet Provost - jet trainer aircraft development of the Provost *Hunting H.107 – a 30-seat airliner project started by Hunting, and evolved after the BAC take-over as the larger

BAC One-Eleven The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...

)

References

* Grey, C.G. ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938.'' London: David & Charles, 1972, . {{BAE Systems evolution Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct helicopter manufacturers of the United Kingdom Former defence companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Luton Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1933 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1960 1933 establishments in England 1960 disestablishments in England

History

Aircraft

See also

References