W.E.W. Petter

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William Edward Willoughby Petter (1908-1968), known as Teddy, was a British aircraft designer.

He designed the Lysander, Whirlwind and Welkin for Westland Aircraft, the Canberra and (partly) the Lightning for English Electric (EE), and lastly the Folland Midge and Folland Gnat.

Teddy was a descendant of the family that founded Westland, the company being a separation of the aircraft business from Petter engines.

He left Westland after the war when they chose to concentrate on helicopters through a linkup with Sikorsky and went to English Electric who were then moving into aircraft design having been involved in building aircraft under contract during the war. While at EE he designed the Canberra and started the work on what would become the Lightning. He split with EE over the direction of aircraft design, he favouring the small over the large.

He joined Folland Aircraft Limited in Hamble, Hampshire as managing director in 1950. At Folland, he designed the Midge, which first flew August 11, 1954, and the Gnat training jet (July 18, 1955).^[1]