TO BUILD THE BEST The Percival story

摘要

In the 1930s, Edgar Wikner Percival had a knack for crafting modern monoplanes that outperformed anything else in their class, propelling record-breaking aviators such as Charles Kingsford Smith and Jean Batten - the so-called 'Garbo of the skies' - to great fame and global acclaim.Born near Albury in Australia on February 23,1897, Percival moved with his family to a dairy farm along the Hawkesbury River, west of Sydney. He attended Richmond Grammar School, before entering an engineering apprenticeship at 15. He went to Sydney Technical College and, attracted by its course in aviation engineering, joined the University of Sydney.William Hart, a pioneering aviator who owned a landing strip close to the Percival family property, gave Edgar an early taste for flying. According to the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame (AAHOF), Percival helped maintain Hart's biplane in return for free pleasure flights.Percival started dabbling with his own aircraft designs, but when World War One broke out,he joined the Light Horse Regiment.He applied for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps in the Middle East and learnt to fly in Egypt,before serving with the 60th Squadron at Arras on the Western Front, as well as in Palestine. By the time Percival demobilised around 1919-1920, he had reached the rank of captain. Inspired by his experiences abroad,Capt Percival returned to Australia with two war-surplus aircraft and spent several years flying in airshow displays, running charters and training other pilots.