PERCIVAL

Hunting Aircraft was a British aerospace company that specialized in the production of light training aircraft and was responsible for the initial design of the BAC 1-11 jet airliner. Founded in 1933 as Percival Aircraft Co., by Edgar Percival, it was later renamed Percival Aircraft Ltd and relocated to Luton, UK. In 1944, the company became part of the Hunting Group and changed its name to Hunting Percival Aircraft. In 1957, it was renamed Hunting Aircraft. Some internal components of Britain’s Blue Danube atomic bomb were designed and manufactured by the company from 1947 in collaboration with the High Explosive Research project at Fort Halstead, Kent. In 1960, Hunting Aircraft was acquired by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), formed earlier that same year through the merger of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, English Electric, and Vickers-Armstrongs. Today, BAC is part of BAE Systems. Throughout its history, Hunting Aircraft designed and produced a variety of aircraft, including the Percival Gull, Vega Gull, Mew Gull, Q.6 Petrel, Proctor, P.40 Prentice, P.48 Merganser, P.50 Prince, P.54 Survey Prince, P.56 Provost, P.66 Pembroke, P.66 President, P.74 experimental gas turbine/tipjet powered helicopter, the P.87 fixed-wing DC-3 replacement, and the Hunting H.126 experimental STOL jet aircraft. The Hunting Percival P.84 Jet Provost and the Hunting H.107 airliner were also developed by the company.