How forgotten hero Beatrice helped win war
HOW MANCHESTER UNI STUDENT HELPED TURN SECOND WORLD WAR WITH AN AMAZING ENGINEERING SOLUTION
SHE is the forgotten heroine whose engineering skills helped Britain win World War Two.
Manchester University graduate Beatrice Shilling’s pioneering work allowed the Spitfire to outmanoeuvre the Luftwaffe’s powerful squadrons of Messerschmitts and Focke Wulf 190s.
Her small but ingenious adjustment to the RAF fighter plane transformed its performance and secured victory in the Battle of Britain.
This giant of aeronautical engineering was awarded an OBE for her work directly after the war, but was then virtually forgotten.
Now a TV documentary to be screened tonight will trace her crucial contribution to the war effort.
Prof Danielle George, of the University, uncovers the history of Beatrice - one of the first two female students to graduate from their engineering department.
She was so pioneering that a previously unseen student record card lists her as ‘Mr’ Beatrice Shilling because there was no space for Miss or Mrs on the entry form at that time.
Prof George said: “I think many people associate inventions from the north west with cotton and Graphene, but these stories show us how diverse and ingenious the people of the north west have been and continue to be today. It was especially pleasing to find out more about Beatrice Shilling who was one of the first women to study in the department I work in. She is a true inspiration to me, and after this programme, hopefully to a new generation of ingenious daydreamers.’’
The programme, part of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World series, Invented In England, highlights Beatrice’s story for the first time on television.
It is just one of a series of forgotten tales of innovation unearthed as part of the halfhour documentary – which also tells the tale of the world’s first steam-powered submarine, invented by George Garrett, a Victorian vicar from Moss Side, Manchester.
Beatrice later became Head of the Engineering Division at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1969. She died in 1990, aged 81. Her innovation came after RAF pilots reported a serious problem with the RollsRoyce Merlin engines powering their Spitfires and Hurricanes.
When pitching their planes into a hard nose dive the negative g-force would flood their engine’s carburettor, causing the engine to stall.
This often occurred when manoeuvring against an enemy aircraft in a dogfight – remedial action by the RAF pilot inevitably allowed the enemy plane to escape. German fighters used fuel injection technology and could therefore out-turn their pursuing RAF counterparts.
Beatrice, then working for the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) – an aeronautical research centre, came up with a solution.
She invented the RAE restrictor, a small metal disc with a hole in the middle that fitted into the Merlin engine’s carburettor helping to limit fuel flow and prevent flooding at critical moments.
Beatrice and her team visited frontline RAF fighter bases to fit the breakthrough restrictor before continuing work on developing a more substantial solution in the shape of the RAE Hobson injection carburettor.
The program also revealed Beatrice’s hobby – motorbike racing, which she began at the Brooklands track with a Norton M30 500cc machine in 1934, it describes how she added a supercharger to the bike allowing her to lap the track at 106mph. Invented In The North West is on BBC1 at 7.30pm tonight.