As a child Percival assisted at his family's farm, on the flats of the Hawkesbury River at Richmond, New South Wales.

[2] In December 1915, Percival volunteered for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force, as a private with the 7th Light Horse Regiment.

Percival requested a transfer from the AIF to pilot training with the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and was accepted in November 1916.

[2] A number of notable flights were made: in 1921 he surveyed the Melbourne-Brisbane route in an Avro 504, and in 1923, he won the Melbourne to Geelong Race.

[2] Later in the same year, Percival was involved in a series of proving flights that helped establish the use of carrier-borne fighters, culminating in him taking off in a Sopwith Pup from the turret of the USS Idaho battleship, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Percival was a noted character on the air racing scene at the time, and was often referred to in the aeronautical press of the day as "The Hat," the nickname resulting from his omnipresent hat, which he also wore while flying, along with a lounge-suit) He was respected as a highly competitive and able pilot, taking great pride in being awarded the prize for "fastest time" in handicap air racing, as well as being a rather fiery, impatient and irascible businessman and employer.

In 1934, after 24 Gulls had been produced at Parnalls, Percival set up his own factory at London Gravesend Airport, Kent.

Other famous aviators were associated with Percival aircraft; in 1933 Charles Kingsford Smith flew a Gull Four named Miss Southern Cross from England to Australia in the record breaking time of 7 days, 4 hours and 44 minutes.

In late 1936 Percival transferred production to larger facilities at the newly built Luton Corporation Airport in Bedfordshire.

A two-bay hangar was constructed to accommodate the workshops and the design offices were set up in the original Georgian farmhouse situated nearby.

A small twin-engined machine, the Q6, was also produced in limited quantities, using a pair of de Havilland Gipsy Six Series II engines driving variable-pitch propellers.

In 1938, with war imminent, Percival developed a military communications and R/T operator training version of the Vega Gull named the Proctor.

During the Second World War, a great deal of Proctor production was sub-contracted out and the designs of other firms, including the Airspeed Oxford and de Havilland Mosquito were, in turn, produced by Percival Aircraft at Luton.