The bit of Petter history whilst at Follands which was missing from “Lysander to Lightning” was his brief spell on early Guided Weapons (GW). Just after WW2, Follands as a company found itself in a very similar position to English Electric i.e. they had developed into a large subcontractor to the primes but with practically no in house design capability. Of course 1945 – 50 Petter solved this problem for EE, but during this period, Folland’s strategy had been to picking up the very early GW work, namely the design/build of the Rocket Test Vehicle (RTV) 2 technology demonstrator. Just as Petter joined Folland’s, they were biding on the first generation radar guided air to air missile (AAM) project known as Red Dean, which they won. Indeed there is reason to believe Red Dean was awarded to Follands specifically because the Ministry knew of Petter’s capabilities. Petter performed the basic architectural lay out and preliminary design of this missile but Follands and Petters aspiration lay elsewhere and Red Dean was now a distraction. As the Midge project got underway they started lobbying the Ministry to move Red Dean onto another supplier. Eventually Red Dean went to Vickers where it flew successfully, developed into the Red Hebe but ultimately became a victim of 1957 defense review;- No fighters aircraft = no need for AAM’s.

Another book to add to your reading is “Folland Gnat – Sabre Slayer and Red Arrow” by Victor Bingham ISBN 1-900511-78-9, Loads of anecdotes of working with Petter at Follands i.e. the first Midge was built from surplus RTV2 program sheet metal.