Second World War
In 1938 with war imminent, Percival developed a military communications and R/T operator training version of the Vega Gull known as the Proctor. This rugged three-seater was powered by a 205 hp Gipsy Queen II engine. During the Second World War, a great deal of Proctor production was sub-contracted out and the designs of other firms, including the Airspeed Oxford and de Havilland Mosquito were, in turn, produced by Percival Aircraft at Luton. In March 1940, Capt. Percival resigned from the company, his dual roles being taken up by Capt. P.D. Acland (formerly Aviation Manager of Vickers Ltd.) who was appointed Managing Director and Arthur Bage becoming the Chief Designer. During the war years, Percival served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
in September 1944, Percival Aircraft was bought out by Hunting & Son Ltd and Edgar Percival sold his interest in his company and moved to the United States to continue work on engine technology. From 1954, his original company began trading under the name Hunting Percival Aircraft Ltd. although the Percival name was finally dropped from the company title in 1957.
Read more about this topic: Edgar Percival
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.