Percival Mew Gull

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Mew_Gull

about the video:

Long shot of Alex Henshaw's aeroplane Percival Mew Gull landing at Gravesend's
airfield in Kent after his record breaking flight to South Africa and back.
Several shots of the aviation pioneer being congratulated by the mayor. Long
shots of crowds giving him three cheers before he is carried away on the
shoulders of a man.


The Percival Mew Gull was a British racing aircraft of the 1930s. It was a
small, single-engine, single-seat, low-wing monoplane of wooden construction,
normally powered by a six-cylinder de Havilland Gipsy Six piston engine. During
its racing career it set many records and was considered a significant,
efficient design, one that eventually reached a top speed of 265 mph (425 km/h)
on a modest 205 hp (153 kW) in its final 1939 form. A modern-day observer has
characterised the Mew Gull as "the Holy Grail of British air racing". During the
second half of the 1930s, Mew Gulls were dominant in air-racing in the UK and
consistently recorded the fastest times until the outbreak of war stopped all
civilian flying in late 1939.

With the Percival Gull already making a name for itself as a racer, over several
months in 1933–1934, Capt. Edgar W. Percival designed and built a single-seat
racer derivative initially named the E1 'Mew Gull'. This was developed into the
E2, E2H and the E3H variants between 1934 and 1938. The sometimes-used
designation "P6" is incorrect; this retrospective tag was created after Percival
left the company and long after the Mew Gulls were built, thus no Mew Gulls were
ever built as "P6s". With the exception of the sole E3H, G-AFAA – which was
built after the company moved to Luton, all of the Mew gulls were built in the
small factory at Gravesend. It should be noted that the E3H, whilst very
strongly visually resembling the E2H, was in truth a totally new and different
machine, with each element differing from its predecessor in some way. It was
most certainly not a 'clipped-wing' version of the E2H as it has sometimes been
described.

Structurally, there was very little commonality of parts between the Gulls IV/
VI/ Vega Gull and the Mew Gull, other than a few minor components. All of the
Gulls, however, did use a similar generic structure. Proprietary equipment such
as engines, airscrews, spinners, instruments, undercarriage legs, wheels and
tyres were generally common to all series. The Mew Gulls (apart from the E1 in
its initial configuration) used a fixed, conventional oleomatic main
undercarriage and a fully castoring tailskid. Small manually operated, split
trailing-edge wing flaps were incorporated into the mainplanes, but were
"...singularly ineffective even when fully extended".


Role
Racing aircraft

Manufacturer
Percival Aircraft Company

Designer
Edgar Percival

First flight
March 1934

Primary user
Civilian racer

Produced
1934–1938

Number built
6

Developed from
Percival Gull



In September 1936 G-AEKL, having previously been Edgar Percival's private mount,
was re-engined and modified to enter in the Schlesinger Race. The Schlesinger
African Air Race was a race from England to South Africa (6,154 miles), but
G-AEKL was withdrawn ten days before the Schlesinger following a fatal taxiing
accident at Liverpool Speke Airport. Two other E2H Mew Gulls were entered, both
of which had been built at the same time to the same specification as the
modified KL. Both failed to finish the race to South Africa. In the 1937 King's
Cup Race, the rebuilt and re-painted G-AEKL was 1st with Charles Gardner at the
controls in his house-colours of dark blue with pale-blue lettering and trim
(See Flight of the Mew Gull, p91.). He averaged 234 mph over the 1,442-mile
course. Percival flew his latest E3H "Super"-Mew G-AFAA, the sixth and last Mew
Gull built, to a third-place finish and still another E2H, G-AEXF was raced by
Alex Henshaw.

The 1938 King's Cup Race was a 1,012 mile event and this time, Alex Henshaw's
much modified E2H G-AEXF came in 1st at 236 mph and Giles Guthrie in his red
"standard" E2H G-AEKL placed 2nd. Edgar Percival flew a third Mew Gull, the E3H
(G-AFAA) and finished 6th. Percival might easily have won, but as well as being
made scratch-man by the Handicappers, he left the fine-tuning of his airscrew
pitches until just before the race and his ground-crew were still tinkering with
them as Alex Henshaw took off. At this time the Bracket-Type airscrew simply did
not have the pitch-range to cope with the exceptionally wide speed range of the
E3H (59–265 mph). An optimisation for either cruise or takeoff and climb would
inevitably compromise the other.

Alex Henshaw attempted to take the England – Cape Town Record in 1939, taking
off on 5 February 1939 from Gravesend Airport, landing at Wingfield Aerodrome at
the Cape the next day, covering the 6,377 miles course in 39 hours and 25
minutes, averaging 209.44 mph while in the air. The return trip was just 11
minutes longer. It is interesting to note that during all of Alex Henshaw's
adventures in this aircraft it was never damaged.

Specifications (Type E.1)

General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 18 ft 3 in (5.56 m)
Wingspan: 24 ft (7.32 m)
Height: 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Wing area: 88 ft² (8.2 m²)
Empty weight: 996 lb (453 kg)
Loaded weight: 1,460 lb (664 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Napier Javelin IA inline, 165 hp (123 kW)

Performance
Maximum speed: 195 mph (170 knots, 314 km/h)
Cruise speed: 175 mph (152 knots, 282 km/h)
Range: 550 mi (478 nm, 885 km)




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