User:KreyszigB/TeddyPetter

By late 1949 the relationship between Sheffield's Preston Strand Road engineering works and Petter's design team at Warton had deteriorated. Modifications to the Canberra to incorporate a bomb aimer, camera bays and dual seat for the navigation trainer required a redesign of the front fuselage, causing disruption in the design office and the workshops. In addition, with the P.1A Lightning design programme ramping up, Petter demanded a separate administration for Warton and an experimental workshop under his control as a condition of his continued service with English Electric. Sir George Nelson was unable to reach a compromise acceptable to both Petter and Sheffield. Page tried to persuade Petter to stay by promising to help in dealing with Sheffield. From December 1949 Petter ceased to take an active part in running Warton, he visited once Warton once again to speak to a few people and clear his office. Page took over the day-to-day management until in February 1950, Petter resigned and Page was formally appointed his successor.

Folland
In the late 1940s Folland Aircraft Limited was manufacturing sub-assemblies for other aircraft manufacturers. Henry Folland planned to retire and recruited Petter as chief engineer and deputy managing director. Petter joined Folland in September 1950, succeeding Henry Folland as managing director in July 1951.. Although Petter had entered into an anti-poaching agreement with English Electric, a number of his ex-colleagues joined Folland when positions were openly advertised. With a strong team, led by a designer of Petter's pedigree, Folland was now able to win MoS design contracts, such as that for the development of the Red Dean air to air missile in mid 1951.

On 11 July 1951 a delegation from the RAF visited Petter to discuss the requirements for a lightweight interceptor to counter the threat of escorted Russian Tu-4 bombers (AST OR/303). To address this Petter developed a number of concepts. His early designs used jettisonable engines but by late 1951 he had focussed on more conventional designs; the Fo 139 and  Fo 140 (which would eventually be developed into the Midge and Gnat respectively). With concept design work on the light fighter ramping up, Petter decided not to proceed with the Red Dean and the MoS cancelled the contract in November 1951.

Petter sent a brochure describing the Fo.140 to the Air Staff in January 1952, but beyond this, further development of the light fighters was hindered by the lack of engines with a high thrust to weight ratio. The Bristol Saturn was cancelled, the the AS Viper had insufficient thrust, Rolls Royce did not have a suitable engine and was not willing to develop one. To address this problem Petter approached Stanley Hooker at Bristol in late 1952 to discuss the design of a suitable engine. This meeting would lead to the development of the Orpheus.

By 1952 Government interest in a light fighter had waned. Despite this Petter began the design and construction of the prototype as a private venture. The Fo 139 design was revised, adopting a shoulder mounted wing and a low set tailplane. In common with his previous designs, Petter made use of magnesium alloys in the structure, using material surplus from the RTV2 Missile programme in the construction of the Midge prototype.

In June 1953 Petter presented his manifesto on light fighter design at the AFITA congress at the Paris Air show. In this paper, titled "Design for Production", Petter compared a 2500kg light fighter with a 7500kg standard fighter and concluded that although the weight ratio was 3:1, four times as many light fighters could be manufactured for the same cost. To achieve this he explained how the fuselage, wing structure, engine and services could all be simplified.

Colonel Johnnie Driscoll, head of the NATO Mutual Weapons Development Program noted Petter's light fighter concept. NATO was interested in ground attack aircraft that could be operated from improvised airfields and could be manufactured by post-war European industry. Driscoll formalised a NATO requirement in August 1954 that would become the NATO light fighter competition. It was based on Petter's concept but included the requirement to use low pressure tyres. However, the Gnat was designed to operate from concrete runways and used high pressure tyres. Petter refused to modify the undercarriage because this would mean bulging the undercarriage doors and spoiling the Gnat's clean aerodynamic lines. Stanley Hooker urged him to 'Just say that you will try to do it, but Petter's moral code would not let him make false claims. As a result the Gnat was eliminated from the competition in June 1955. Ironically, the Gnat trainer design would show that the wider tyres could be used without increasing drag.

Production of the Midge progressed to schedule and it was rolled out of the workshop on 31 July 1954, making its maiden flight on 11 August 1954. The Gnat first flew on 18 July 1955 and while it was demonstrated to be a capable aircraft there was little interest in it in Europe. the Indian government showed an interest in both purchasing and licensed manufacturing in November 1955.{{sfnp|Bingham|2002|p=31} Petter made several visits to India and he and his design team were highly regarded by HAL. An approach was made to him to set up a design team in India. However, his relationship with Indian government officials was antagonistic due to arguments over variations in contract costs

In the late 1950s Petter rationalized his senior staff, dismissing those he thought had failed to meet his standards. However at the same time the Macmillan government was rationalizing the aircraft industry and made the order for Gnat Trainers conditional on Folland merging with Hawker Siddely group. Such a merger would effectively make Petter subordinate to Sir Sidney Camm, with whom Petter had a good relationship (Camm had provided Petter with the Hunter wind tunnel data during the development of the Gnat) but a the working relationship would be intolerable. At the same period his wife Claude was showing the early signs of Parkinson's disease. These two factors prompted Petter to announce his resignation to the Hawker Siddely board on 11 November 1959, leaving Folland in the December.





Personal life and retirement
Throughout his education at Marborough and Cambridge he seems to have lead a reclusive life. At Cambridge he had one close friend, John McCowan, with whom he shared an interest in motor cars. It was during a stay at the McCowan family farm that Petter met his future wife Claude, the daughter of Louis Munier a Swiss official at the League of Nations in Geneva. Teddy and Claude were married in August 1933, in her home town near Geneva, with McCowan as their best man.. The Petters had three daughters, Camile in 1936, Francoise in 1938 and Jenni in 1945. While living in Dorset in the 1930s he designed his own house, a modern wooden chalet, with oil heating, double glazing and an automatic garage door,. Petter was a complex man. He was deeply religious. On the surface he appeared reticent and scholarly (Penrose described him as poetic), but in character he was extremely confident, bordering on arrogance.. In his early career he was regularly snubbed by Air force/ministry officials. but he engendered respect and loyalty from those who he worked with and developed strong allies in people like Roy Fedden and Stanley Hooker. He was a good team builder; the team he put together to create the Canberra went on to design the Lightning) the TSR2 and become key figures in BAC and its successor BAe.

He was a perfectionist when it came to aerodynamics, stubbornly resigning changes that he thought would increase the drag on an airframe, even if this caused problems with acceptance of the aircraft (examples being the exhausts on the Whirlwind and the undercarriage doors on the Gnat). Throughout his career he strived for complete control over the whole of the project, including sales and manufacture. It appears to have been lack of control that cuased him to resign. Adn may have been the thing that drove his interest in light fighters. hence it is ironic that in the last decade of his life he should give up control of his life to a religious commune.

Final years

He died in Poitou-Charentes in France in 1968 aged 59. Claude died in 1975, having suffered for a long time from Parkinson's disease.

TemporaryReferences