William Edward Willoughby "Teddy" Petter (1908-1968) was a British aircraft designer.
He designed the Lysander, Whirlwind and Welkin for Westland Aircraft, the Canberra and (partly) the Lightning for English Electric (EE), and lastly the Folland Midge and Folland Gnat. Petti was a descendant of the family that founded Westland, the company being a separation of the aircraft business from Petter engines.
He left Westland after the war when they chose to concentrate on helicopters through a linkup with Sikorsky and went to English Electric who were then moving into aircraft design having been involved in building aircraft under contract during the war. While at EE he designed the Canberra and started the work on what would become the Lightning. He split with EE over the direction of aircraft design, he favouring the small over the large.
He joined Folland Aircraft Limited in Hamble, Hampshire as managing director in 1950. At Folland, he designed the Midge, which first flew 11 August 1954, and the Gnat training jet (18 July 1955). He was also responsible for early work on the Red Dean air-to-air missile before this work was transferred to Vickers. [1]
References
- ^ 'Folland', British Aircraft Directory (1 May 2004) Retrieved 20 May 2005
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