AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 40 / 100

Plate 40 of 100 · Second World War · Radio trainer and communications aircraft

Percival Proctor

Proctor III, painted as LZ766, a Percival P.34 Proctor III radio trainer built by F. Hills & Sons at Barton in 1944 with a de Havilland Gipsy Queen II engine, flown after the war as G-ALCK, later with the Skyfame museum at Staverton and displayed at IWM Duxford since 1978, painted as it is shown there: Dark Earth and Dark Green camouflage over trainer-yellow undersides, a yellow-ringed Type C1 roundel and ‘LZ766’ in black on the fuselage, Type B roundels above the wings, Type C roundels and large serials under the wings, a fin flash, black ‘W/T’ wireless-trainer boxes on the nose, fin and rudder, dark green wheel spats and a black two-blade propeller with yellow tips; the underside of the port wing is never photographed, so its markings are assumed to match the starboard.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as LZ766, a Percival P.34 Proctor III radio trainer built by F. Hills & Sons at Barton in 1944 with a de Havilland Gipsy Queen II engine, flown after the war as G-ALCK, later with the Skyfame museum at Staverton and displayed at IWM Duxford since 1978, painted as it is shown there: Dark Earth and Dark Green camouflage over trainer-yellow undersides, a yellow-ringed Type C1 roundel and ‘LZ766’ in black on the fuselage, Type B roundels above the wings, Type C roundels and large serials under the wings, a fin flash, black ‘W/T’ wireless-trainer boxes on the nose, fin and rudder, dark green wheel spats and a black two-blade propeller with yellow tips; the underside of the port wing is never photographed, so its markings are assumed to match the starboard. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Proctor III modelled here.

History

The Proctor

Before the war Percival Aircraft of Luton had made its name with fast light monoplanes for private owners, among them the Vega Gull, a four-seat cabin aircraft that won the 1936 King’s Cup. In 1938 the Air Ministry issued specification 20/38 for a radio trainer and communications aircraft, and Percival answered with a militarised Vega Gull: a wooden low-winged monoplane with a slightly longer fuselage, larger rear windows, a fixed, spatted undercarriage and a de Havilland Gipsy Queen engine. The prototype, P5998, first flew from Luton on 8 October 1939, five weeks after war broke out.

The Proctor I was a communications aircraft that carried officers and despatches between RAF stations; the Royal Navy took its own versions for the Fleet Air Arm. The Proctor II and III were three-seat radio trainers, in which a pupil wireless operator learned to send and receive while an instructor watched, before going on to the crew of a bomber. The Mk III was the most numerous mark, with 437 built, and the longer, roomier Mk IV followed in 1943. Percival built the first 222 Proctors at Luton and then turned to other work, so most of the rest came from F. Hills & Sons of Trafford Park, Manchester, which assembled them at Barton aerodrome.

In all 1,143 Proctors were built, including 150 civil Proctor 5s made after the war. The RAF withdrew its last Proctors in 1955. Hundreds of surplus Proctors went onto the civil register in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Europe as cheap four-seat tourers, until doubts about their glued wooden joints grounded most of them in the early 1960s.

This airframe

Proctor III LZ766

LZ766The airframe modelled

LZ766 was built by F. Hills & Sons at Barton in 1944 as a Proctor III radio trainer. After the war it was sold, registered G-ALCK and flown by civil owners until it was grounded. It then joined the Skyfame Aircraft Museum at Staverton, and when Skyfame closed in 1978 it came to Duxford with the rest of the collection. It has since been restored to its wartime identity. The model shows it as displayed: Dark Earth and Dark Green camouflage over trainer-yellow undersides, a yellow-ringed fuselage roundel and the serial LZ766 in black, a fin flash, the black “W/T” boxes of a wireless trainer on the nose, fin and rudder, dark green wheel spats, and a black propeller with yellow tips. No photograph shows the underside of the port wing, so its roundel and serial are assumed to match the starboard side.

See it at IWM Duxford

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Proctor in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 100 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.