By Susanna McLeod
Special to Ontario Construction News
World War Two demanded new aircraft to fight the enemy. The planes needed to be sophisticated and built with efficient precision. Developed at Canadian Car & Foundry, innovative aircraft and machinery were designed by Canada’s first female aeronautical engineer, Elsie MacGill.
MacGill, born March 27, 1905, was an indomitable leader from the start. The first Canadian woman to graduate with an Electrical Engineering degree from University of Toronto (1927) faced an immense obstacle. Waking up paralyzed shortly after graduation, MacGill was diagnosed with a variant of polio. Her frightening prognosis was never walking again. She refused to give in. Using sturdy canes, she learned to walk again, and “supported herself during her recovery by writing articles on aviation,” mentioned Ingenium Canada.
Accepting a job as mechanical engineer at a Pontiac, Michigan auto manufacturer, McGill applied her skills to stress analysis. When the company expanded to airplane construction, McGill was inspired to learn more.
Attending graduate studies at University of Michigan, MacGill earned her Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1929, specializing in aircraft research and development. The first female aeronautical engineer in the world rounded out her qualifications with a Doctorate from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1934. A job offer brought McGill home to Canada.
The Longueuil, Quebec firm “was doing cutting edge work,” described Crystal Sissons and Nathan Baker in “Elsie MacGill” on The Canadian Encyclopedia, and she “worked on a variety of aircraft designs and forged professional ties with the aeronautical staff at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario.”
In 1938, MacGill accepted a post as Chief Aeronautical Engineer at Canadian Car & Foundry—Can Car—in Fort William (now Thunder Bay). One initial project was designing the Maple Leaf II Trainer. Fully overhauled by the new Chief, the plane was considered “the first aircraft to be designed and produced by a woman,” Sisson and Baker said. That same year, MacGill was accepted as the first female member of the Engineering Institute of Canada.
Ramping up production, Can Car “was hired to supply the British Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force with Hawker Hurricanes…” said Parks Canada. As men fought overseas, women filled essential jobs. Performing “riveting, welding, precision drilling and much more,” the female workforce was “guided in part by the technical leadership of pioneer aeronautical engineer Elsie MacGill.”
At the same time, MacGill “oversaw the company’s first original design for the Hawker Hurricane,” added Parks Canada. Within a year, the first fighter plane took to the skies, and in short order, production crews launched three to four aircraft every week during wartime.
Overseeing “a staff of 4,500,” MacGill “also designed a series of modifications to equip the Hurricanes for cold weather flying,” stated CBC Learning’s Canada: A People’s History. “By the end of the war, one out of every ten Hurricane fighters—2,000 in all—had been built by Can Car.” (MacGill oversaw production of nearly 75% of those aircraft.) For her achievement, Elsie MacGill was proclaimed Queen of the Hurricanes.
At the end of production in 1943, MacGill was responsible for retooling the plant to manufacture the Curtiss-Wright Helldiver fighters. The Americans made numerous design changes, and for unknown reasons, MacGill and plant manager William Soulsby were let go or quit. The pair married and moved to Toronto, where MacGill opened her own successful engineering consulting firm.
Accepting civilian contracts, the businesswoman became a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization, eventually setting another record as the first woman in the organization to serve “as a technical advisor on aircraft worthiness,” said Sisson and Baker.
MacGill used her status to promote women’s access to education and non-traditional work. Her activism led her to become president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs and vice-chair of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, among others.
Honours poured in for the innovative engineer, from the Engineering Institute of Canada’s Gzowski Medal in 1941, to honorary doctorates from several universities to the Gold Medal from Ontario Association of Professional Engineers in 1979. One rare recognition debuted in 1942 with five colour pages in the True Comics series celebrating the heroic story of the Queen of the Hurricanes.
Posthumously, MacGill was inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983, the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 1992, and more. The University of Toronto established the Elsie Gregory MacGill Memorial Scholarship for women undergrads in fourth year science programs.
On Nov. 4, 1980, Elsie MacGill died suddenly at age 75 while visiting her sister in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Throughout her fascinating life, MacGill opened doors for women, giving light to their capabilities and talents. Standing on the engineer’s shoulders, women now work and make brilliant contributions in construction, science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the arts.
© 2021 Susanna McLeod. McLeod is a Kingston-based freelance writer who specializes in Canadian History.