“Miss Shilling's Orifice” helped win the war (2020)

My family stems from a group of travelling motorbike stunt riders back to the 20's. They did the wall of death and later the globe of death, and had to solve this problem in their bikes.

The family story is that we helped win the battle of Britain, as Miss Shilling read the about the idea in a motorcycle magazine that covered my families show. There is a lot of evidence on what Miss Shilling did, and that my family did the same modification to their bikes prior, but the lack of a link between the two leaves this as a half truth / half myth story

> Shilling worked out the precise volume and pressure of fuel being pumped into the chamber by the Merlin engine and designed a brass restrictor with a hole precisely the diameter needed to allow maximum flow of fuel, and therefore maximum power, without flooding the engine. Crucially, Shilling’s solution could be fitted without the removal of the carburettor, so the fix could be made in situ at operational airfields. Though it didn’t eliminate engine cut-outs altogether, it did minimize it to an acceptable degree.

He didn't need to describe his lower legs suddenly becoming strangely warm.

What isn't mentioned is that before the band aid was discovered thanks to Ms Shilling and her ... (it was often called 'er c**) a Spitfire would have to invert before diving to turn a neg. into a posi. So, when your enemy pushes forwards on the stick whilst frantically wriggling left and right, you would have to spin 180 on your longitudinal axis to follow. I'm sure many of the enemy would then fake to get you to spin and whilst you are fiddling around, slow down and get in behind you.

I can imagine: ME109 finds Spitfire on his tail. He has two great options - better rate of climb and a pressurized fuel system which doesn't cut out in neg. g. The Spitfire has a better turning circle, so don't go there. I suspect that they would go for the fake dive - the Spit will have to invert to follow. Now, I don't know how long the early Spits can manage a dive before having to decide to invert or pull out, so that is a factor here. When the 109 sees the Spit inverting in the rear view, pull back fairly hard, slow down a bit, probably with a left to right jiggle with the rudder to "skid" rather than messing with revs and propellor pitch (takes to long to play with the controls). If done right the Spit will pass underneath your 109 and most importantly, be blind because he's inverted. Now you are behind him and you have a cannon plus a handful of pea shooters to deploy.

If the Spit is canny, he should see the fake dip and probably try to turn horizontally and turn the scrap into a turning game. The Spit should win that because it has a better turning circle, in general.

Have an off day at the office in one of these things and you end up dead. I can barely conceive of what it must have been like to operate like that, operation after operation, day after day, week on week, months turn to years. There is no let up.

I love the understated humor of this article. And for different reasons, this is another wonderful bit from the piece:

This left only the logistical problem of how to get the restrictors to Fighter Command airfields in good time. Shilling organized a small band of engineers to assist, though inevitably she travelled up and down the country solo, and by her preferred mode of travel: her trusty Norton motorcycle. By then she’d made the small concession, perhaps under duress, to detune the Norton somewhat to make it more suitable for public roads.

“Her appearance at airfields with a bag of tools and a brisk manner became something of a legend,”

I'm also really happy to see these bits:

It was due to these ongoing narrow margins in battle that we can be sure Shilling’s innovation saved lives.

“Beatrice Shilling helped us to win World War II —of that there is no doubt,” he told the BBC in 2017. Her war efforts weren’t limited to improvements to the Merlin engine. She also contributed to a range of engines to improve starting in freezing conditions, and operation at higher altitudes.

Negative gravity sounds confusing because the author is using the wrong word–what’s being described here is negative gravity equivalent (g-force). The aircraft is experiencing plenty of gravity, just in a different direction than it normally would. The problem is very much one of force.

Negative gravity is related to the concept of negative mass, which is a proposed form of exotic matter.

Aptly put. Good thing about reading up on history is to gain an appreciation on the enormous changes in perception in the last 100 years or so, in this case about women in STEM fields. Even when her contribution was acknowledged and applied, it was coined a horribly sexist nickname.

Heck, that would put some hairs on your chest… the solution is ingenious too. What a neat article.

G-forces on an British fighter planes' fuel caused the engine to cut out during a tactically important nosedive.

This problem was fixed by a fuel constrictor, designed by a "diamond-in-the-rough" female engineer and motorcycle racing world champion.

She undoubtedly saved lives, but she didn't singlehandedly solve society's misogynistic views.

it was known as her orifice

In case anyone was curious about that part of the article