Hunting Aircraft
{{Short description|British aircraft manufacturer, 1933–1960}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Hunting Aircraft
| logo =
| type =
| fate = Merged to form British Aircraft Corporation
| successor =
| foundation = 1933 (as Percival Aircraft Co.)
| defunct = 1960
| location = Luton, Bedfordshire, England
| industry = Aerospace
| key_people =
| products =
| num_employees =
| parent =
| subsid =
}}
Hunting Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer that produced light training aircraft and the initial design that would evolve into the BAC 1-11 jet airliner. Founded as Percival Aircraft Company in 1933, the company later moved to Luton, England. It was eventually taken over by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1960.
History
File:Hunting Jet Provost T.1 G-AOBU BLA 07.09.55 edited-2.jpg prototype wearing the titles of Hunting Percival Aircraft in 1955]]
The company was formed as Percival Aircraft Co. in Gravesend 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 prototype was built for Percival by the British Aircraft Company and production aircraft by Parnall Aircraft.
The company moved to Gravesend Airport 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.
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 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, Kent.{{cite web |last1=Cocroft |first1=Wane |title=Fort Halstead, Dunton Green Sevenoaks, Kent: A brief assessment of the role of Fort Halstead in Britain's early rocket programmes and the atomic bomb project |date=23 September 2010 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/49-2010/|publisher=English Heritage |access-date=7 February 2022 |page=15}}
It changed its name to Hunting Percival Aircraft in 1954 and then to Hunting Aircraft in 1957.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%201822.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160420015711/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%201822.html |archive-date= 2016-04-20 |title=Hunting Percival name change |magazine=Flight |access-date=18 August 2011 |page=912 |date=13 December 1957}}
In 1960 the company was taken over by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), itself formed earlier that same year through the merger of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, English Electric and Vickers-Armstrongs.Gunson, W.; World Encyclopaedia of Aircraft Manufacturers, 2nd Edition, Sutton (2005). BAC later became part of British Aerospace, now BAE Systems.
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.Silvester, John. Percival and Hunting Aircraft. Leicester: Midland Counties Publications 1987. {{ISBN|0-9513386-0-9}}{{Page needed|date=September 2023}}
- Percival Gull
- Percival Vega Gull
- Percival Mew Gull
- Percival Q.6 Petrel
- Percival 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{{cite magazine |title= Hunting Percival |url= http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%202460.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160305164953/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%202460.html |archive-date=2016-03-05 |magazine=Flight |date= 3 September 1954 |page=337}}
;Hunting Aircraft
- Hunting H.126 – an experimental STOL jet aircraft for investigation of blown flaps
- 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)
See also
References
{{reflist}}
- Grey, C.G. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938. London: David & Charles, 1972, {{ISBN|0-7153-5734-4}}.
{{Hunting Percival aircraft}}
{{Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom}}
{{BAE Systems evolution}}
Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Category:Defunct helicopter manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Category:Former defence companies of the United Kingdom
Category:Companies based in Luton
Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1933
Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1960