Percival Puffin

[Old Wombat]

 

[zenrat]

 

[kitbasher]

May not sound much, but:

Wing and tailplane roots an wing light spaces filled, elevators attached, additional filling the fuselage/nose join.  Was originally to dispense with the Comet undercarriage completely but on second thoughts have used the legs.  the Undercarriage wells will have two side doors each rather than the single rearward-folding cover the Comet comes with. I will be using new wheels though. 

Colour scheme decided upon a long tome ago - fictional but hopefully typical early 1950s.

[kitbasher]

Focus is on the Wellington right now, will do my best to have the Puffin ready for Telford.

[kitbasher]

Focus is on the Wellington right now, will do my best to have the Puffin ready for Telford.

It's a good job I didn't say which Telford!  Finally calling this done.  Yes I could faff and tittivate a bit more, but to no real gain.  it's an old kit that went together easily except at the final stage - the canopy was slightly narrower than the cockpit.

So to the finished item (completed just a short while ago), Percival Puffin G-AKDD as operated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and seen at Denham Aerodrome in August 1951:







The Puffin was derived from the Percival Proctor as a four-seat touring aircraft.  The name 'Puffin' was selected by Percival workers to reflect the fact that the type resembled a smaller version of Percival's only other twin-engined aircraft, the Petrel.

Development of the Puffin was conducted at a rapid pace following the end of the Second World War, Percival being keen to bring new designs to the post-war civil aviation sector at minimal development cost. This included utilisation of as many Proctor components as possible.

First flying on 26 November 1945 (exactly a month after the competing – albeit slightly smaller - Miles Gemini's first flight), the company's confidence in the Puffin was such that sales demonstrations using the prototype started only days later, while efforts to commence large scale production were started immediately.

150 Puffins were sold worldwide, aircraft having been registered in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Gold Coast, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, New Zealand, Portugal, Rhodesia, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Jordan, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States.

The actual G-AKDD was a Miles M65 Gemini 1A built in 1947.  It was permanently removed from the UK civil aircraft register in 1961 – see G-INFO Historical Ledger G-AKDD.

G-AKDD's colour scheme was inspired by pics of restored Proctor G-ALJF, all markings being home made.

[PR19_Kit]

What a neat looking aeroplane, are you sure it's a real Whiff? 

Adding an extra engine to the Proctor sounds like a good idea, they should have done the same to the Prentice.

Er, no, the Prentice needed TWO extra engines!

[zenrat]

Sweet.

[NARSES2]

That looks good 

[ericr]

very pretty indeed

[comrade harps]

Lovely colours and so smooth. 

[Tophe]

  Cute...

Proctor development

To fully appreciate the beauty of this "new" plane, I am glad I saw the source, quite ugly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Proctor
Congratulations!

[Dizzyfugu]

That's looking great (and kawaii!), very well done. 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That's a little beauty!

[Old Wombat]

Cute!