Percival Mew Gull replica
Right Angled windscreen quarter panels were an addition not present on the prototype. Standard RAF instrument layout, dominated by essential turn and slip. Spade grip for the stick is original borrowed from a Vega Gull, suitcase contains a portable transponder. Location where the compass sits was also used for an emergency fuel tank
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which is perhaps, more accessible. Well, in theory anyway. While it’s possible to buy a Hurricane, you’d have to make a Mew Gull. In the original’s image, and to the original drawings, after which – in theory – and as the taildraggerliterate holder of a PPL, you could fly it. And it isn’t powered by a Merlin. This story begins in 2008 or thereabouts. David Beale was already an LAA inspector and the owner of the only airworthy Tipsy Belfair (sporty Belgian, side-by-side two-seater, powered by an inline inverted 62hp Walter Mikron). He’s definitely a hands-on type so had inevitably become the go-to man for the Czech-made engines, and had previously rebuilt a Taylor Titch racer, (also powered by a
Mew Gulls as a species
he Percival E-series Mew Gull was designed by Arthur Bage – responsible for the larger Proctor Mk4 and 5 – and originally known as the E1. Five were built at Percival’s factory in Gravesend between 1934 and 1938, but the only survivor is s/n E22, built for South African pioneer aviator Allister Miller for the Schlesinger Air Race which started in Portsmouth and finished in Johannesburg in late 1936. Originally registered ZS-AHM, it was powered by a 205hp de Havilland Gipsy Six and was well ahead in the race but took on some poor quality fuel in Romania and detonated the engine. It was recovered to the UK and sent back to Percival for repairs. A disappointing outcome for Miller but one which probably ensured the aircraft’s survival. E22 was re-registered as G-AEXF on May 18, 1937, and eventually sold to aviating genius Alex Henshaw who flew it to victory in the 174 mile Folkestone Trophy the same year. Following modification by Jack Cross of Essex Aero Ltd. at Gravesend, (see Cross words panel later) Henshaw won the following year’s King’s Cup at a speed of 236.25mph, a record for British aircraft which still stands. Henshaw would fly AEXF again, departing Gravesend on 5 February, 1939 and arriving at Wingfield Aerodrome in the Cape, 39 hours later with a total average speed of just over 150mph and an airborne average of 209mph. Many hours were then occupied with meetings and a lunch… before setting off again for Gravesend, a return which took just 11 minutes longer. It was a record which was only broken in 2009, and unlike that recent effort, Henshaw had no regular comm radio, no NAVAIDs, no room in the cockpit, no crew to give support… They were made of different stuff. The record was broken again in 2009, and again in 2011, and both Chalkie Stobbart and Steve Noujaim deserve immense credit for their achievement. Neither Stobbart’s wooden Osprey or Noujaim’s metal RV-7 were as fast as the Mew Gull, and, but for that bit of essential business which preoccupied Henshaw, he might still hold the record… Of the other four Mew Gulls, G-AEMO/ZS-AKO also started the 1936 Schlesinger Air Race, flown by South African pilot Stanley Halse. He was six hours in the lead from the Percival Vega Gull flown by eventual winners Charles Scott and Giles Guthrie, but missed a navigation point in Rhodesia, hidden by smoke from bushfires and decided to make a precautionary
30 | FLYER | Summer 2020
Walter, naturally, which gave it the proper long-nosed period racer look), but which tragically was destroyed in a fatal crash. Thus far Beale had spent his proper-job time building up Innomech, a high-tech engineering group based on the Isle of Ely, specialising in robotic machinery for the medical profession. Clearly, it’s a successful enterprise, but come the early noughties one whose founder had a 60th birthday looming. “I had already tried to hand over control but I kept interfering…” It’s a familiar tale involving driven individuals… However, the loss of the Titch meant David was without a proper ‘hooligan’s machine’, a desire that belied his scholarly appearance. It’s something he had coveted since his days flying control-line models.
landing. In the confusion, Halse chose a field near Bomobohama in Rhodesia and hit an ant hill which flipped the aircraft over. When the crew returned the following morning to try and recover it, they found most of the aircraft had been eaten by presumably angry termites. The remains apparently ended up as an exhibit in a South African Flying Club. G-AEKL was seriously damaged in a tragic accident before the Schlesinger race began. The aircraft, which had been finished in a black and white colour scheme which didn’t really flatter its lines, was sponsored by Liverpool Council and due to be flown in the race by Tom Campbell-Black. He took the aeroplane to Speke so it could be christened with champagne, but while taxying out, Flying Officer Peter Salter didn’t see the Mew beneath the nose of his Hawker Hart and taxied straight into it. The unfortunate Campbell-Black was fatally injured and died in the ambulance on the way to hospital. The aircraft was returned to Percival where it was repaired and sold to Schlesinger winner Giles Guthrie who raced it successfully before it went eventually to Jim Mollison. He was preparing it for another record event but German bombs at Lympne put paid to that. G-AEKL may have been lost but its registration lives on, or nearly. Quite why the CAA couldn’t reissue the original mark is a bureaucratic mystery, but G-HEKL was as close as Beale could get. G-ACND survived almost until the end of the war, when it was damaged by de Havilland who were using it for propeller tests. G- ACND’s end was more ignominious, painted in Luftwaffe livery and burnt in a post-war celebration at Percival’s factory in Luton. The final evolution of the Mew Gull was the E3, a later attempt by Edgar Percival to compete with his own Mew Gulls, which had been paid for by customers. Percival had by then left Gravesend and moved to Luton in Bedfordshire, later to become Hunting and finally, British Aircraft Corporation in 1960. David Beale says he would really rather have built an E3, but an extensive search failed to uncover any drawings. The LAA had stated firmly that even if dimensionally similar, an E3 made without original drawings would be a new build rather than a replica, and would be subject to all the necessary stress calculations, so in the words of LAA Chief Engineer Francis Donaldson, it was ‘probably best not to go there…’