1. Beatrice Shilling was an English aeronautical engineer, motorcycle racer and sports car racer.
23 Facts About Beatrice Shilling
1. 2.
In 1949, Shilling was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
3.
Beatrice Shilling was born at Waterlooville, Hampshire, the daughter of Henry Beatrice Shilling, a butcher, and his wife Annie, nee Dulake.
4.
Beatrice Shilling was allowed to transfer to doing work on aircraft engines.
5.
Beatrice Shilling worked on many projects for the Royal Aircraft Establishment during the Second World War, the best-known of which was the RAE Restrictor modification that solved the problem of Rolls-Royce Merlin engines stalling during negative-g flight.
6.
Beatrice Shilling devised a restrictor to solve this problem, originally a brass thimble with a hole in the middle and later further simplified to a flat washer of very precise dimensions.
7.
Beatrice Shilling designed the RAE Hobson pressure carburettor, though this was never produced.
8.
Beatrice Shilling helped design and build a bobsled for the Royal Air Force Olympic team.
9.
Beatrice Shilling worked for the RAE until her retirement in 1969, working as an engineer in the Mechanical Engineering Department.
10.
Beatrice Shilling was only the second woman to achieve this, the first being Florence Blenkiron earlier the same year.
11.
In 1967 Beatrice Shilling was brought in to help US Formula 1 driver and team owner Dan Gurney solve an overheating problem with his Eagle Mk1 F1 racing car.
12.
Beatrice Shilling was awarded an honour as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI in 1949.
13.
In 1956, Beatrice Shilling joined the Institution of Mechanical Engineers under her married name of Naylor, and was elected as an Associate Member, enabling her to use the letters CEng after her name.
14.
Beatrice Shilling held an honorary doctorate from the University of Surrey awarded in 1969.
15.
Beatrice Shilling was a member of the Women's Engineering Society, which she joined as a teenager.
16.
Beatrice Shilling encountered various forms of discrimination throughout her career, including an RAE chief engineer who did not allow women to enter the building, a law prohibiting women from working at night, and a ban on women entering the RAE Senior Mess.
17.
Beatrice Shilling married George Naylor, who worked at the RAE, in September 1938.
18.
Beatrice Shilling volunteered for an extra tour of bombing missions beyond what was expected of him.
19.
Beatrice Shilling suffered tinnitus and other health problems in later life as a result of his wartime activities.
20.
In September 2018, Beatrice Shilling was included in Winchester Heritage Open Days 'Extraordinary Women of Hampshire' exhibition, which celebrated notable Hampshire women, past and present.
21.
On 27 March 2019, Royal Holloway University opened the Beatrice Shilling Building, home to its new department of Electronic Engineering.
22.
Beatrice Shilling's biography was published by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography on 9 May 2019 as part of their support for the Women's Engineering Society's centenary.
23.
Coventry University's Beatrice Shilling building opened on the city centre campus in autumn 2020.