Difference between revisions of "William Edward Willoughby Petter"
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Revision as of 15:16, 12 June 2009
William Edward Willoughby Petter (1908-1968) known as Teddy was an British aircraft designer.
He designed the Lysander, Whirlwind and Welkin for Westland Aircraft, the Canberra and (partly) the Lightning for the English Electric Co, and lastly the Folland Gnat and Midge.
Teddy was a descendant of the family that founded Westland, the company being a separation of the aircraft business from Petters engines.
He left Westland after the war when they chose to concentrate on helicopters through a linkup with Sikorsky and went to the English Electric Co who were then moving into aircraft design having been involved in building aircraft under contract during the war. While at theEnglish Electric Co he designed the Canberra and started the work on what would become the Lightning. He split with the English Electric Co over the direction of aircraft design, he favouring the small over the large.
He joined Folland Aircraft in Hamble, Hampshire as managing director in 1950. At Folland's he designed the Midge, which first flew August 11, 1954, and the Gnat training jet (July 18, 1955).
Sources of Information
[1] Wikipedia