Algy has now included me in his anecdote sharing. I found the story of Teddy Petter, designer of the Folland Gnat jet aircraft gripping. Algy remembers the Red Arrow Gnats beating up the aerodrome where he trained, they flew at around 650 knots at 50 feet, so he says. The Red Arrows are the Royal Air Force’s aerobatic display team, now flying BAE Hawks. The Gnat was called a “Formula One car with wings” leaving service in the 1970’s.

Algy recalls that two of his pals beat up his parents home in North Wales flying two Gnats. The gardener and his wife threw themselves down in the flower bed,where they were working, muttering “this has something to do with Master Algy” in Welsh. He always has a tall story to tell.

William Edward Willoughby “Teddy” Petter CBE FRAeS (8 August 1908, Highgate in Middlesex– 1 May 1968, Beruges France) was a British aircraft designer. He is noted for Westland’s wartime aeroplanes, the Canberra, the early design of the Lightning, and his last plane, the Folland Gnat.

Edward ‘Teddy’ Petter was the eldest of the three sons and one daughter of Sir Ernest Petter (co-founder of Westland Aero Works) and his wife, Angela Emma. Because his father spent much time in London, Teddy’s early childhood was spent mostly with his mother, from whom he inherited a strong religious conviction and firm ethical principles. He was educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire then Cambridge. During his first two years at Cambridge he focused his studies on subjects relevant to oil engines, the traditional product of Petters Limited, but in his third year he concentrated on aerodynamics and aircraft engineering. In 1929 he was awarded a first class in the mechanical sciences and shared the John Bernard Seely prize prize in aeronautics.

Throughout his education at Marlborough and Cambridge Petter seems to have led 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 embassy in Geneva. Teddy and Claude were married in August 1933, in her home town near Geneva, with McCowan as their best man. He eventually joined Folland, where he designed the Gnat.

When he left Folland he had intended to continue as a consultant engineer, with a limited interest in the Gnat. However, in January 1960 Petter left the aircraft industry completely, stating “I have finished with aviation completely. I have strong religious interests to which I am now going to give a lot of my time.”

‌Five years earlier, Claude had been introduced to a ‘Father Forget’, a former minister of the Reformed Church of France who claimed to be able to cure her Parkinson’s disease through communal prayer. With Claude and daughter Jenni, Teddy Petter joined Father Forget’s commune in 1960 and moved to Switzerland. There he lived the simple life of a holy man until in May 1968 he died, aged 59, of bleeding from a chronic stomach ulcer. He was buried in Beruges, in France. Claude died in 1975.

It was noted that the endless red tape had discouraged him from pursuing his aviation career. There is a book written about him available here:

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30367061788&cm_sp=Searchmod-_-NullResults-_-BDP

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

The Aviating Chimp