Manufacturing the Percival Prentice: An Account by the Technical Editor of the Production of the Hew All‐Metal Basic Trainer for the Royal Air Force

THE manufacturing methods and processes being used by Percival Aircraft Ltd., at Luton, in the production of the Prentice are of more than usual interest because this is the first metal aeroplane to be made by a firm well known for its wooden aircraft. Not only has the company built many hundreds of Gulls, Proctors and other wooden aeroplanes of its own design, but during the war the factory was largely occupied making Oxfords and Mosquitos. It is only in the post‐war period that Percival's have turned to metal, with the Prentice for the R.A.F. and the Merganser and Prince for the civil market. It was decided to design and build much of the works equipment. Examples of this are to be found in the two stretching presses, the strip rolls and the strip slitter.