Mike Harper

It was not without irony that when Beatrice Shilling helped the R.A.E. to overcome the negative-g Merlin engine cut-out problem in 1941 (work began in 1940 but was not applied in widespread use to Squadrons until 1941), there was sitting on a bench at Farnborough, the R.A.E. carburettor, which controlled the fuel flow according to a layout schemed by A. A. Griffith in 1935 which was very much like that used in fuel injection, and so was totally immune to negative-g cutouts. The R.A.E. carburettor, had been studiously ignored by most of the British engine constructors in the 30`s as, as far as they were concerned, their own float carburettors were satisfactory enough, cheap and "proven" in large scale production & in service. The irony being that it was Beatrice Shilling who had been chiefly responsible for the development of this negative-g immune carburettor since the late 30`s. If the R.A.E. carburettor, roughly schemed by Griffith and Clothier at the R.A.E, and put into practise by Beatrice had been accepted for service, the famous restrictor would NEVER have been needed at all. The major engine firms turned to the R.A.E. to save them when it became obvious it was a very severe combat problem. but only needed to do so because they had spent most of the previous decade ignoring the R.A.E. and by extension, Beatrice. She should never have needed to design the restrictor. After the restrictor was put into use, her Carburettor was put into production by Hobson, thereafter it was known as the Hobson Injection Carburettor and was fitted to large numbers of Spitfires later in the war. Despite all this, Beatrice is still "known" for designing a washer which was only needed because everyone had ignored her, and the R.A.E., most of this all stemmed from very serious bad relations between what would become the R.A.E. and the British aviation Industry, from which, a lasting resentment never left, until Spitfire and Hurricane pilots started complaining about escaping Messerschmitts ... and then, very suddenly they (and Beatrice) were flavour of the month ! The story of the carburettor and fuel injection is one of the very few examples of extremely serious organizational failure in British aviation policy in the 1920`s and 30`s. I hope the R.A.E and Beatrice start to be remembered for their REAL achievement in negative-g, the totally cut-immune R.A.E carburettor !