Edgar Wikner Percival (23 February 1897 – 21 January 1984) was a noted Australian aircraft designer and pilot whose aircraft were distinguished by speed and grace. Percival went on to set up the Percival Aircraft Company, a British aircraft company in his own name.
Early years
Percival was born in 1898 at Albury, New South Wales, the son of Blanche Hilda Leontina Percival, née Wikner and William Percival, a butter manufacturer. Edgar Percival's maternal great uncle was the Swedish philosopher Pontus Wikner.
As a child Percival assisted at his family's farm, on the flats of the Hawkesbury River at Richmond, New South Wales. He also became fascinated by aviation, especially after seeing an aeroplane for the first time in 1911, when a local dental surgeon and pioneer aviator, William Ewart Hart, landed on the council field in Richmond, near the Percival property. After helping to maintain Hart's aircraft, Percival received, as a reward, his first flight. By 1912, when he was 14, Percival had designed, produced and flown his own gliders.
He attended Fort Street High School, in Sydney. Percival left school at the age of 15, to become an apprentice engineer at a Sydney firm. He later enrolled at Sydney Technical College, before undertaking a short course in aeronautical engineering at Sydney University.
First World War
In December 1915, Percival volunteered for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force, as a private with the 7th Light Horse Regiment. After being promoted to temporary sergeant, he embarked in April 1916 for Palestine.
Percival requested a transfer from the AIF to pilot training with the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and was accepted in November 1916. After going solo in 20 minutes in 1917, Percival was assigned to No. 60 Squadron, a scout (fighter) unit in France, commanded by the Canadian ace Billy Bishop. Percival was noted for his flying skills and after he was promoted to captain, transferred to No. 111 Squadron as one of its founding members. With 111 Sqn he saw service in the Middle East and Greece. In 1918, while serving in Egypt, Percival designed his first powered aircraft, "a special-purpose aircraft based on the Bristol F.2B, with the Rolls-Royce Eagle engine". In August 1919 he was elected as a member of the Royal Aero Club.
Inter-war period
Following the First World War, Percival returned to Australia with three surplus aircraft, two Avro 504s and a de Havilland DH.6 aircraft to do film work, stunt flying and barnstorming plus charter flights, operating his own charter company. A number of notable flights occurred: in 1921, he surveyed the Melbourne-Brisbane route in an Avro 504, in 1923, he won the Melbourne to Geelong Race.
In Australia, Percival began to take a further interest in aircraft design; he built the winning entry in the 1924 Australian Aero Club competition to design a light aircraft. In 1926, flying an aircraft that he helped design, he competed in a Federal Government challenge for both design and piloting skills, winning £940 in prize money.
Later in the same year, Percival was involved in a landmark series of proving flights that helped establish the use of carrier-borne fighters, culminating in him taking off in a Sopwith Pup from the turret of the USS Idaho battleship, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Percival returned to England in 1929 where he was appointed as an Air Ministry test pilot, specializing in amphibians, seaplanes and Schneider Trophy racers and went on to set up his own firm, the Percival Aircraft Company, to produce his aircraft designs. Edgar Percival was also very active as a pilot during the interwar period; not only did he compete with regular success, but his designs were widely used by other racing and record-setting pilots who held his products in very high regard. Noted racing pilots of the time who also flew Percival's machines included C.W.A. Scott, Jim and Amy Mollison, Charles Gardner and Giles Guthrie. Many came to Percival to have their machines specially built and modified for the task in hand – usually to extend their already long range.