Percival Vega Gull

The Percival Vega Gull was a 1930s British four-seat touring aircraft built by Percival Aircraft at Gravesend and Luton. A single-engined, low-wing monoplane of wood and fabric with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage, it developed the earlier Gull by adding a fourth seat, dual controls and flaps, with a wider fuselage and longer wingspan, while careful reduction of parasitic drag kept it nearly as fast as the Gull Six. It kept the de Havilland Gipsy Six engine. The prototype first flew in November 1935. Publicity from winning the 1936 Schlesinger Race from England to Johannesburg led to a production line at Luton and about 90 aircraft. Beryl Markham flew one on the first east-to-west solo Atlantic crossing by a woman, and the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm used others before the Proctor replaced it.