MacGill in 1939
Photo courtesy of the National Archives of Canada
“Queen of the Hurricanes,” World War II aeronautical engineer, Elsie MacGill, was the world’s first female aircraft designer. According to Wikipedia, having grown up encouraged by her mother to study engineering, she became the first women to achieve a long list of accomplishments. MacGill became the first female Canadian to earn an aeronautical engineering degree when she graduated in 1927 from the University of Toronto. Further pursuing aeronautical engineering, she was awarded a masters degree in this field from the University of Michigan, becoming the first woman in North America to have done so.
Starting her professional career, she became an Assistant Engineer at Montreal’s Fairchild Aircraft and then later became the Chief Aeronautical Engineer at Canada Car and Foundry, “the first woman in the world to hold such a position.” She was also elected as the first woman to be elected to membership in the Engineering Institute of Canada. MacGill designed and tested the aircraft, Maple Leaf II, as well as oversaw production of the Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft, hence the reasoning of her nickname, “Queen of the Hurricanes.” On these fighter aircrafts, she also designed solutions so this aircraft could be operated in the winter time.
Maple Leaf II, designed and tested by MacGill
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Elsie MacGill went on to start an aeronautical consulting business with her husband, E.J. Soulsby, and did much fighting for women’s rights in the 1960’s, all the while earning the title of ‘first woman’ to other accomplishments, including becoming the first woman to chair a UN committee. She lived from 1905-1980.
MacGill became so popular, a comic book was created about her.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
