User:KreyszigB/Frederick Page (Edit)

English Electric Canberra
Petters original B1/44 concept used a pair of Metrovik centrifugal engines mounted in the fuselage. Page was certain that to obtain the required high performance, the weapons load and fuel would have to be carried in the fuselage, and that this would need two wing mounted engines. Page's influence on the design was such that although the overall concept was Petter's, much of the radical thinking underlying it, such as the undercarriage design and the spring tab control surfaces, was Page's, driven by his meticulous scientific analysis. He guided the structural design so successfully that by the first flight in May 1949 the weight was actually 0.5% less than the original estimate.Prior to this he had worked closely with Petter in building the design team; concerning Roland Beamont's lack of engineering qualifications, Page had pointed out they would "have plenty of good engineers but what was needed was a test pilot with operational inexperience”

In the the summer of 1948 the English Electric started to develop a design proposal for a supersonic fighter  under experimental research specification E.R. 103 which would eventually become the Lightning. Page was assigned to lead the design with Ray Creasey responsible for the the aerodynamics. By July 1948 their proposal incorporated the stacked engine configuration but was designed for Mach 1.5. As a consequence it had a conventional 40° degree swept wing and a high mounted tail plane. This proposal was submitted in the November and in January 1949 the project was designated P.1 by English Electric. On 29 March 1949 MoS granted approval for English Electric to start the detailed design, develop wind tunnel models and build a full size mock up. The design that had developed during 1948 evolved further during 1949. To achieve Mach 2 the wing sweep was increased to 60° with the ailerons moved to the wing tips and later (after wind tunnel tests) the height of the tail plane was lowered.

By early 1950 the relationship between the Preston manufacturing works (lead by Arthur Sheffield) and the Warton design team had deteriorated. With the demanding P1 Lightning programme ramping up, Petter demanded more autonomy for Warton as a condition of his continued service with English Electric. However, Sir George Nelson (English Electric's managing director) was unable to reach a compromise acceptable to both Petter and Sheffield. Page tried to persuade Petter to stay on with a promise to assist Petter in fighting Arthur Sheffield's establishment, but from December 1949 Petter ceased to take an active part in the team and Page took over the day-to-day management. At the end of 1949 Petter only appeared once again at Warton to speak to a few people and clear his office, until in February 1950 Petter resigned and Page was formally appointed his successor.

After Petter left, the stress of re-establishing the Warton organisation, while maintaining tight control of the Canberra development and the P1 design resulted in period of ill health for Page. During this illness key members of the team rallied round, keeping the vital activities on schedule until he recovered.