Elsie MacGill

Elsie MacGill, known as the "Queen of the Hurricanes" was the world's first Female aircraft designer. Aeronautical engineer, designer, human rights activist and author, Elsie MacGill used her life to create and dominate the skies as well as lobby for the rights of women and children everywhere.

Born Elizabeth Muriel Gregory MacGill in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1905. Her father, James Henry MacGill was a prominent lawyer and her Mother, Helen Gregory MacGill was British Columbia's first Female Judge. Her mother was a supporter of Women's Suffrage, and her relationship with her mother greatly encouraged her direction in the the study of aviation. Elsie decided to study electrical engineering at the University of Toronto, and was the first Canadian woman to earn a degree in that field. She graduated in 1927 and began work for the Austin Automobile Company in Pontiac, Michigan. This company eventually started producing aircrafts, and Elsie took a sincere interest in aeronautics and began to work towards a Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Michigan. In 1929, she would succeed and be the first woman in North American to do so. Unfortunately, shortly before her graduation from the University of Toronto, she contracted polio. Her doctors told her she would likely be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, but her determined nature pushed her to regain the ability to walk through the use of metal poles. Upon recovery, she worked as an article writer for various magazines on airplanes and flight - she used the money she earned from this endeavour to fund her doctoral studies at MIT in Cambridge.1.2.

In 1934, Elsie began work for Fairchild Aircraft Limited in Longueuil, Québec as an assistant aeronautics specialist. She also participated in the structure of the first all metal aircraft in Canada

In 1938, she was appointed Chief Aeronautical Engineer at the Canadian Car and Foundry Company. It was here where she designed and tested the Maple Leaf II Trainer: an aircraft designed to train pilots.

Due to her disability (polio) she was never able to become a pilot. She did, however, insist to act as passenger on all test flights. She believed this was the best way to assess the aircraft's performance.

"She was perhaps best known for her work on the Hawker Hurricane fighter airplanes during World War II. These airplanes were instrumental in the Battle of Britain. She was in charge of all engineering work, adapting the Hurricane to fly in cold weather. Between 1939 and 1943, Can-Car built 1,451 Hawker Hurricanes under her leadership"(...)"Dr. MacGill was also in charge of all engineering work on the Curtiss-Wright Helldiver fighters for the United States Navy."(...)

Although the Maple Leaf II was never selected to serve the Commonwealth, a number of them were sold to Mexico. When the Hurricane was selected to be mass produced for the Royal Air Force, the number of workers at CC&F went from approximately 500 workers to 4,500 by wars end, half of them women.

By the time the Hurricane production had ended, CC&F had produced over 1,400 of these aircrafts.

"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. In 1947 she became the chairman of
the United Nations Stress Analysis Committee, the first woman ever to chair a UN
committee."(...)

In 1955, Elsie published a biography about her mother entitled My mother the judge: a biography of Judge Helen Gregory MacGill. Having been heavily influenced by her mother's and grandmother's involvement in the suffrage movement, Elsie herself became a women's rights activist and became more involved in the women's rights movement of the 1960's and beyond.

"She served as the president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs from 1962 to 1964.[7] In 1967 she was named to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada and co-authored the report published in 1970.[8] She also filed a "Separate Statement" describing those of her opinions that differed from the majority on the Commission"(...)

She also openly and publicly expressed her interest in seeing Abortion removed from the Criminal Code.

Elsie MacGill was a woman of many firsts not only for Women in Canada, but the world over. Her long and distinguished career resulted in many inventions, innovations, and boundary pushing. She is a member of the Order of Canada. She was the first non-American to be named "Woman of the Year" by the American Society of Women Engineers. While her list of awards and distinctions is lengthy and impressive, what's most impressive to this author is Elsie MacGill being immortalized as a comic book heroine: Queen of the Hurricanes.

For More on Elsie MacGill:

Rosies of the North: Documentary by the NFB