Edgar Percival

Edgar Wikner Percival was an Australian aircraft designer and pilot whose aircraft were distinguished by speed and grace. Born in New South Wales, he built and flew his own gliders as a boy, served with the Australian Imperial Force and then the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War, and designed his first powered aircraft in Egypt in 1918. After the war he flew charter and stunt flights in Australia before moving to Britain, where he founded the Percival Aircraft Company, maker of the Gull, Vega Gull and Mew Gull light and racing aircraft that later became Hunting Aircraft. He is entered here as the founder of that company and as an aviation designer and pilot.