Beatrice Shilling Fixed Diving Engines

During the Battle of France and Battle of Britain in 1940, negative g-force during dives flooded the carburetors of Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, causing RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes to lose power. An English aeronautical engineer named Beatrice Shilling designed a precisely sized washer that restricted fuel flow and prevented the flooding without requiring engines to be removed. By March 1941, she was touring RAF stations to install the device, which pilots nicknamed "Miss Shilling's orifice." Shilling was also a motorcycle racer who lapped Brooklands at an average speed of 101.85 mph in 1934, becoming only the second woman to earn the British Motorcycle Racing Club's Gold Star.

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