Edgar Percival, continued

Edgar Percival resigned from Percival Aircraft Ltd in 1940 to work on technology to increase engine power through supercharging. He also served in  the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserves until 1944 when he sold his remaining interest in Percival Aircraft Ltd. when it was taken over by Hunting and Sons Ltd. The Percival Aircraft Company changed it's name to Hunting Percival Aircraft Ltd in 1954 with he 'Percival' part of the name being dropped in 1957. In 1944 Percival moved to the USA to further his interest in engine technology after the British Government showed no interest, and became a US citizen in 1948.
1951 saw Edgar Percival in New Zealand as a pioneer of aerial application systems. In 1954 he returned to England to form the Edgar Percival Aircraft Ltd that produced his first new aircraft since the World War. The new aircraft was the E.P.9 designed primarily as a crop duster. It was also used for STOL operations, Air Ambulance, Light Cargo and Glider towing. The EP 9 pictured was used by a crime syndicate to smuggle furs from Belgian to England. The company was sold to Samlesbury Engineering in 1960. Samlesbury Formed the Lancashire Aircraft Company to continue production of the E.P.9.
Edgar Percival continued to work on aviation Projects in England and New Zealand until his death in 1984.
After Edgar Percival resigned from the company Percival Aircraft produced a trainer for the RAF called the Prentice, which was basically a metal aircraft based on Edgar's 'Gull' designs, and then in 1951 came another trainer, an all new design called the Provost. This was the first Percival Aircraft to break with the design principals established by Edgar Percival.
The Provost continued in various forms until it was replaced by Jet Provost.
In 1959 Hunting Aircraft merged with the Bristol Aircraft Company, Vickers Armstrong and English Electric to form the British Aircraft Company. This merger happened as a result of pressure from the British Government to rationalize the aircraft, engines and the guided weapons industries. One of the incentives was the promise of funding for the TSR2 project. When the TSR2 project was cancelled BAC was saved from bankruptcy by the BAC 1-11, a private project. Since then continuous joint ventures and mergers with Aircraft companies around the world have meant that the linage of the Percival Aircraft Company has been watered down to the extent that it has just faded away.
Edgar Wikner Percival was either present or part of just about every major advancement in aviation for over 70 years, almost from the beginnings of powered fight till the 1980's.
A very full life filled with airplanes.

Roll Out of SpaceShip Two

Scaled Composites and Sir Richard Branson's SpaceShip two sub-orbital space vehicle was rolled out on the 7th of December 2090. SpaceShip Two is approximately twice the size of SpaceShip One which won the US$10m Asari X prize for being the first non government re-usable vehicle to fly into space.
Fight testing is planned to begin in the near future. SpaceShip Two will carry six paying passengers with a crew of two. The cost of a ticket is US$200,000.00 return. One way tickets are not planned.

Initially there are five SpaceShip Two's planned. The first will be the VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise. The second will be the VSS Voyager. The other three have not been named.
SpaceShip Two is designed so that it can be re-engined for orbital capacity at a later date.
The mother ship, White Knight Two, will carry SpaceShip Two to 50 Kilometres altitude where it will be released to climb under it's own power to 100 Kilometres. Video of White Knight Two at Oshkosh was featured in the September issue of this magazine. The technology behind SpaceShip Two is owned by Mojave Space industries. Mojave Space Industries is a partnership between Burt Rutan, the designer of the Technology, and Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates.
The defining difference between technology used for SpaceShip Two and the Space Shuttle is that SpaceShip Two has a low re-entry speed and can return through the atmosphere at any angle rather than the low angle high speed re-entry of the Space Shuttle that requires Heat Shields.
Take a look at what happened after the roll out.