Elizabeth Muriel Gregory MacGill (March 27, 1905November 4, 1980), known as the "Queen of the Hurricanes", was a Canadian engineer. She was chief aeronautical engineer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CC&F) in Fort William, Ontario during the Second World War. There she oversaw manufacturing of 1,451 Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the British Royal Air Force, then 835 Curtiss Helldivers for the U.S. Navy, which contributed greatly to the war effort and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of aircraft manufacturing. After her work at CC&F, she ran a successful aeronautical engineering consulting business. Between 1967 and 1970, she was a commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, which published a report in 1970.

MacGill was admitted to the University of Toronto's Bachelor of Applied Sciences program in 1923. During the summers she worked in machine shops repairing electrical motors to supplement the theory and practical teachings during the school year. It is also here that she became exposed to the nascent field of aeronautical engineering. Contracting polio just before her graduation, MacGill was told that she would probably spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She refused to accept that possibility though, and learned to walk supported by two metal canes. Elsie graduated from the University of Toronto in 1927, the first Canadian woman to earn a degree in electrical engineering.

After graduating, MacGill took a junior job with Austin Aircraft Company in Pontiac, Michigan, which furthered her interest in aeronautics. She also began part-time graduate studies in aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan, enrolling in the fall of 1927 in the full-time Master of Science in Engineering program to begin aircraft design work and conduct research and development in the university's new aeronautics facilities. Her contemporary at MIT was aeronautical engineer and technical writer, M. Elsa Gardner.

Career

In 1934, MacGill started work at Fairchild Aircraft's operations in Longueuil as an assistant aeronautical engineer. She contributed to various aviation projects including the Fairchild Super 71 (the first aircraft designed and built in Canada featuring a metal fuselage), the Fairchild 82 (a bush plane), and the Fairchild Sekani (twin-engined transport aircraft). She presented a paper, "Simplified Performance Calculations for Aeroplanes", to the Royal Aeronautical Society in Ottawa, on March 22, 1938, to high praise. It was later published in The Engineering Journal. She also participated in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's six-part series, The Engineer in War Time; her segment was called "Aircraft Engineering in Wartime Canada". In 1942, she was elected to the position of chairman of the EIC, Lakehead Branch, after having also served as their vice-chairman.

Later that year MacGill was hired as Chief Aeronautical Engineer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CanCar). There she designed and tested a new training aircraft, the Maple Leaf Trainer II.

The Maple Leaf Trainer was designed and first built in CanCar's Fort William (now Thunder Bay) factories, where MacGill had moved. Although the Maple Leaf II did not enter service with any Commonwealth forces, ten (two were completed, but eight had to be assembled in Mexico) were sold to Mexico where its high-altitude performance was important, given the many airfields from which it had to operate. Her role in the company changed when the factory was selected to build the Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The factory had to be quickly expanded from about 500 workers to 4,500 by war's end, half of them women. McGill was responsible for tooling up production for more than 25,000 precision parts; the parts had to be interchangeable with Hurricanes manufactured in the U.K. Numerous popular stories were published about her in the media as well, reflecting the public's fascination with this woman engineer.

After Hurricane production ended, CanCar looked for new work and secured a contract from the United States Navy to build Curtiss SB2C Helldivers. Again MacGill was responsible for all engineering and production work, and the plant ultimately produced 835 aircraft, significantly contributing to Allied air power. This production did not go nearly as smoothly, and a continual stream of minor changes from Curtiss-Wright (in turn demanded by the U.S. Navy) meant that full-scale production took a long time to get started.

MacGill moved to Toronto, where she set up an aeronautical engineering consulting business with Bill Soulsby in 1943. In 1946, she became a Technical Adviser for International Civil Aviation Organization (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 U.N. committee.

In 1952, MacGill presented a paper to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) conference, "The Initiative in Airliner Design", that was subsequently published in The Engineering Journal. A year later SWE awarded her their annual Achievement Award.

Advocacy

After breaking her leg in 1953, MacGill used the opportunity of her months of convalescence to sort through her mother's papers and begin writing a biography of her mother's life. MacGill published the book, My Mother, the Judge: A Biography of Judge Helen Gregory MacGill, in 1955. The active public service and work of her mother and grandmother in the suffrage movement inspired Elsie to spend more time dealing with women's rights in the 1960s. In 1967 she was named to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada and co-authored the report published in 1970. She also filed a "Separate Statement" describing those of her opinions which differed from the majority on the commission. For example, she wanted abortion removed from the entirety of the Criminal Code.

Personal life

Elsie MacGill married E.J. "Bill" Soulsby in 1943 and the couple moved to Toronto, where they began their consulting firm.

After a short illness, MacGill died on November 4, 1980, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In noting her death, Shirley Allen, a Canadian member of the Ninety-Nines organization of women aviators said of her: "She had a brilliant mind and was recognized as an outstanding Canadian woman. Neither gender nor disability prevented her from using her talents to serve her community and country."

Awards, honours, and legacy

250px|thumb|right|A plaque by the Toronto Historical Board commemorating Elsie MacGill, in front of the Sandford Fleming Building at the [[University of Toronto.]]

Firsts

In 1927, she was the first Canadian woman to earn a bachelors degree in electrical engineering

In 1978, she received an honorary Doctorate from York University.

In 2012, she was inducted into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame.

In 2019, MacGill was the honoree of a Canada Post stamp as part of the "Canadians in Flight" series.

In 2019, MacGill was the subject of a biography for young readers, Meet Elsie MacGill, published by Scholastic Canada.

In October 2020, MacGill was the topic of a Heritage Minute short film honouring her achievements in the Second World War.

Elsie MacGill Secondary School, Halton District School Board (opened 2021).

Royal Canadian Air Cadets squadron renamed "70 'Elsie MacGill' Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron" (2022).

Commemorative circulating loonie issued by the Royal Canadian Mint, “Honouring Elsie MacGill” (2023). Archival reference number is R4349. See also Elsie Gregory MacGill fonds at the Archives of Ontario.

There is an archival file at the Society of Women Engineers' archives:

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Bourgeois-Doyle, Richard I. Six decades later, SWE pioneer Elsie MacGill continues to inspire. SWE Magazine,v. 57, n. 2, Spring 2011, pp. 28–32, 32a-32z (web exclusive including chapter 2 of Her Daughter the Engineer) Society of Women Engineers ISSN 1070-6232.
  • Green, John J. "Obituary: Elizabeth (Elsie) Gregory MacGill, FC AS1, 1905–1980." Unpublished text from memorial service held Wednesday, November 26, 1980. University of Toronto Archives.
  • MacGill, E.M.G. "Factors affecting mass production of aeroplanes". Flight, v. 38, n. 1656, September 19, 1940, pp. 228–231.
  • MacGill, E.M.G. My Mother, the Judge: A Biography of Judge Helen Gregory MacGill. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1955; reprinted in 1981 by Toronto: PMA Books. .
  • Short profile of MacGill , Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame
  • Elsie MacGill – Queen of the Hurricanes from the CBC
  • Elizabeth "Elsie" MacGill from the Canada Science and Technology Museum
  • Biography of MacGill and bibliography from Library and Archives Canada
  • Elsie Gregory MacGill fonds, Library and Archives Canada
  • Elsie Gregory MacGill fonds, Archives of Ontario
  • "Her Daughter the Engineer: The Life of Elsie Gregory MacGill by Richard I. Bourgeois-Doyle" from the National Research Council Canada Research Press Monographs Publishing Program
  • Rosies of the North directed by Kelly Saxberg, National Film Board of Canada, 1999; a documentary about the Canadian Car and Foundry Company during the Second World War when Elsie MacGill was its chief engineer.
  • Review of the NFB film Rosies of the North in CM, the magazine of the Manitoba Library Association.
  • Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca