Geoffrey Terence Roland Hill, (1895 – 26 December 1955) was a British aviator and aeronautical engineer.

Early life

Geoffrey Terence Roland Hill was born in 1895, the son of Michael J. M. Hill, Professor of Mathematics at the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, and his wife Minnie. He was educated at University College School. While he was in his early teens he won prizes as a builder of model aircraft. In 1912, with his younger brother,

Roderic Roderic (also spelled Ruderic, Roderik, Roderich, or Roderick; Spanish and pt, Rodrigo, ar, translit=Ludharīq, لذريق; died 711) was the Visigothic king in Hispania between 710 and 711. He is well-known as "the last king of the Goths". He ...

, they built a model aircraft for the Children's Exhibition at

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

, which was followed by a nearly-successful full-sized glider. Subsequently, he went up to University College, where he obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in 1914 and joined the Royal Aircraft Factory as a graduate apprentice.

Flying career

By 1916 Hill had learnt to fly and became a test pilot at the Royal Aircraft Factory. He obtained a commission in the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

as 2nd lieutenant, and fought in France with No. 29 Squadron. In late 1916 he was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

and in January 1917 he was promoted to the rank of captain (temporary). Invalided home, he moved back into test flying and by 1918 he was in command of the Aerodynamics Flight at the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

. When the war ended he joined Handley Page, Ltd., as their chief test pilot/aerodynamicist, and in 1919 climbed a

Handley page W.8 The Handley Page W.8, W.9 and W.10 were British two- and three-engine medium-range biplane airliners designed and built by Handley Page. The W.8 (also known as the H.P.18) was the company's first purpose-built civil airliner although it was a ...

up to nearly 14,000 ft – then, a world record for an aircraft of 1,500 kg all-up weight

Aeronautics

Hill designed a series of tailless aircraft, the Westland-Hill Pterodactyls, from the 1920s onwards. After the last Pterodactyl flew in 1932, he ended his association with Westland Aircraft in order to take up a chair as Professor of Engineering Science at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

. In 1939 he headed a project in Pawlett, near Bridgwater, Somerset, investigating methods for cutting the cables on enemy

barrage balloon A barrage balloon is a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe collision risk to aircraft, making the attacker's approach more difficult. Early barra ...

s; recovery from stalling after contact with such cables was an important part of his work there. Hill was British Scientific Liaison Officer at the

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

(NRC) in Canada in the mid-1940s. There, he made the proposal for the

NRC tailless glider The NRC tailless glider, also called the NRL tailless glider, was a two-seat tailless research glider designed by the National Research Council of Canada and built by the National Research Laboratories, at the instigation of G.T.R. Hill who had ...

for the study of the control and stability of tailless aircraft. The glider design was built and flew from 1946 until the project ended around 1950. Hill proposed the "aero-isoclinic" wing in 1951, in an attempt to control the undesirable effects of bending in the long, thin swept wings then becoming widespread. He subsequently worked with

David Keith-Lucas David Keith-Lucas (25 March 1911 – 6 April 1997) was a British aeronautical engineer. Early life David Keith-Lucas was one of the sons of Alys Hubbard Lucas and Keith Lucas, who invented the first aeronautical compass. After the death of K ...

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

on the design of the experimental Short SB.4 Sherpa, another tailless design, which test-flew the wing.

Personal life

Hill married May Alexander on 10 October 1918 in

Carrickmore Carrickmore () is a village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated in the historic barony of Omagh East, the civil parish of Termonmaguirk and the Roman Catholic Parish of Termonmaguirc between Cookstown, Dungannon and Omagh. It ha ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Obituary in ''Flight''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Geoffrey T.R. British aerospace engineers English test pilots Military personnel from London Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society Recipients of the Military Cross English aviators 1895 births 1955 deaths Royal Flying Corps officers