Elsie MacGill – One of the First Woman Aeronautical Engineers

Did you know that Elizabeth Muriel Gregory or Elsie MacGill is popularly known as the ‘Queen of Hurricanes’? Here’s why:

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Elsie Macgill

She was born in 1905 in a upper-middle class family in Vancouver.  Later, attending the University of Toronto, Elsie graduated in 1927 as the first woman in Canada with an electrical engineering degree in hand.  It was the time of the introduction of aircraft manufacturing when she accepted a position with the Austin Automobile Company in Pontiac, Michigan.
Aeronautics must have taken a good part of her mind. So she enrolled at the University of Michigan and graduated in 1929 with her Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Once again, she was the first woman too hold this degree.

She started working for Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) where she designed and tested a new training aircraft – The Maple Leaf Trainer II.
Her role became bigger in the company, when their factory was selected to build the Hawker Hurricane Fighter Aircraft for the Royal Air Force.

During the Second World War, MacGill's main task was to streamline operations in the production line as the factories

rapidly expanded. MacGill was also responsible for designing solutions to allow the aircraft to operate during the winter, introducing de-icing controls and a system for fitting skis for landing on snow.?CC&F had produced over 1,400 Hurricanes whenthe production line shut down in 1943. She wrote a paper in 1940 on her experience called: “Factors affecting mass production of aeroplanes”.

Her role in this successful production run made her famous, even to the point of a comic book being published in the United States about her, using her then-famous nickname, "Queen of the Hurricanes".

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Numerous popular stories were published about her in the media as well. They all reflected the public's fascination with this female engineer.

In 1943, she set up an aeronautical consulting business in Toronto. In 1946, she became the first woman to serve as Technical Advisor for ICAO, where she helped to draft International Air Worthiness regulations for the design and production of commercial aircraft.

She has received numerous awards for her eventful work in the field of aeronautics and has secured her name as the first woman aeronautic engineer in the history of Canada.

Her work can be an inspiration to the thousands of budding engineers.