Hilda Margaret Lyon, MA, MSc, AFRAeS (31 May 1896 – 2 December 1946) was a British engineer who invented the "Lyon Shape", a streamlined design used for airships and submarines.

Early life and education

Lyon was born in 1896 in

Market Weighton Market Weighton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is one of the main market towns in the East Yorkshire Wolds and lies midway between Hull and York, about from either one. According to the 2011 UK cen ...

, Yorkshire. She was the youngest daughter of Thomas and Margaret Lyon (née Green); her father was a grocer. Hilda Lyon attended Beverley High School and then in 1915 went to

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, from which she obtained a MA in mathematics.

Career in aviation

After graduating, Lyon took an

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

course in aeroplane stress-analysis and then obtained a job as a technical assistant. She saw no prospect of promotion or more responsibility "for a woman mathematician" in this job, so she and her sister quit their jobs and went to Switzerland for six weeks. In 1918, Lyon worked as an Aircraft Technical Assistant for

Siddeley-Deasy The Siddeley-Deasy Motor Car Company Limited was a British automobile, aero engine and aircraft company based in Coventry in the early 20th century. It was central to the formation, by merger and buy-out, of the later Armstrong Siddeley Motor ...

. She moved to George Parnall & Co. in 1920. R101-at mast

Around 1922, Lyon was admitted as an Associate Fellow of the

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows, ...

. From 1925 onwards, she was a member of technical staff at the

Royal Airship Works Cardington Airfield, previously RAF Cardington, is a former Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, with a long and varied history, particularly in relation to airships and balloons. Most of the former RAF station is in the parish o ...

in Cardington, helping to develop the

R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Mi ...

rigid airship A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the Aerostat, envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pres ...

through her work on aerodynamics. In 1930, Lyon was awarded the R38 Memorial Prize by the Royal Aeronautical Society for her paper "The Strength of Transverse Frames of Rigid Airships". It was the first time that any prize of the society had been won by a woman. Lyon's work involved travel to America, Canada, and Germany. In 1930 she went to America on a Mary Ewart Travelling Scholarship and took up studies at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, where she was first permitted to use a

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

. In 1932, she submitted a thesis on "The Effect of Turbulence on the Drag of Airship Models" to obtain her MSc. After submitting her thesis, Lyon went to

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

in Germany, and conducted research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft für Strömungsforschung with

Ludwig Prandtl Ludwig Prandtl (4 February 1875 – 15 August 1953) was a German fluid dynamicist, physicist and aerospace scientist. He was a pioneer in the development of rigorous systematic mathematical analyses which he used for underlying the science of ...

. After her return to Britain, Lyon spent time at home as a carer, keeping up with her research at the same time by using the libraries of the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

and the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

and by visiting the National Physical Laboratory and the Royal Aircraft Establishment. During this time, she worked on

aeroelastic flutter Aeroelasticity is the branch of physics and engineering studying the interactions between the inertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces occurring while an elastic body is exposed to a fluid flow. The study of aeroelasticity may be broadly classif ...

and elastic blades. USS Albacore (AGSS-569), launching 1953

From 1937, Lyon returned to full-time aerodynamic research as a Principal Scientific Officer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. She first worked in wind tunnels on boundary layer suction, then joined the Stability Section. She later became head of this section, and also served on the Aeronautical Research Council. Lyon died on 2 December 1946 following an operation. After her death, her research and the "Lyon Shape" which she devised were incorporated into the American submarine , which had the prototype streamlined hull form for almost all subsequent US submarines.

Commemoration

Lyon's biography was published by the

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

on 9 May 2019 as part of their support for the

Women's Engineering Society The Women's Engineering Society is a United Kingdom professional learned society and networking body for women engineers, scientists and technologists. It was the first professional body set up for women working in all areas of engineering, pred ...

's centenary, and
new book
has been published about Hilda's life and work. A blue plaque was installed in Lyon's honour at the site of her father's grocers’ shop (now McColls) in

in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

on Thursday, 27 June 2019. St Mary's Church in

Beverley Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre and north-west of City of Hull. The town is known fo ...

, East Yorkshire announced their intention of installing a stone carving of Hilda Lyon as part of a programme of celebrating women in the restoration of the stonework of the medieval church in 2021. The other eight figures will include fellow engineer and WES member

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records du ...

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

Mary Seacole Mary Jane Seacole (;Anionwu E.N. (2012) Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands. ''British Journal of Healthcare Assistants'' 6(5), 244–248. 23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up t ...

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

, Rosalind Franklin,

Helen Sharman Helen Patricia Sharman, CMG, OBE, HonFRSC (born 30 May 1963) is a British chemist and cosmonaut who became the first British person, first Western European woman and first privately funded woman in space, as well as the first woman to visit ...

and Ada Lovelace.

References

External links

The Strength of Transverse Frames of Rigid Airships
- R38 prize paper.
The Effect of Turbulence on the Drag of Airship Models
- MSc thesis. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon, Hilda 1896 births 1946 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni British aerospace engineers British women engineers History of aviation British mathematicians People from Market Weighton Women's Engineering Society