HILL

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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29.4.1895 London/UK - 26.12.1955 Belfast/UK

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Even as a boy, Geoffrey Hill's future career was unmistakably marked out. He spent much of his spare time with aircraft models and at the age 17 secured a place for one of them at an exhibition. He was educated at University College, London, from where he graduated in 1914. After having served in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, he undertook responsibilities in aeronautical research for the Air Ministry. After demobilization Hill pursued his absorbing interest in aeronautics as an experimental engineer and chief test pilot to the Handley Page Ltd. By this time he had acquired a background of knowledge and experience which, coupled with his inventive ability, enabled him to conceive the idea of a tailless aircraft.

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In 1922, Hill was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Senior Studentship, and after two years of research to test the validity of the principles that the two brothers had enunciated, he began the design and construction of the novel aircraft. The work was supported in its early stages by the Aeronautical Research Committee and eventually the machine was further developed with the Westland Aircraft Co when he joined that firm in 1926. It was shown to the public for the first time at the RAF pageant in Hendon and is now in the Science Museum in South Kensington, where it bears witness of the contribution to the aeronautical science by the two brothers. In 1934 Hill returned to his old College as Kennedy professor of engineering, holding this post until 1947 in favor of the aircraft industry as consultant to Short Brothers and Harland Ltd in Belfast. During World War II, he was seconded to the Air Ministry and later the Ministry of Aircraft Production for research work, and as a pioneer in the invention of the isoclinic wing he made valuable contributions in helping to maintain the superiority of the Allies in the air. Hill was elected to fellowship of the Royal Aeronautical Sciences and was awarded the D.Sc. title in engineering from the University of London.

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_{Anonymous (1937). Prof. G.T.R. Hill. The Aeroplane 52(1): 58. P}

_{Anonymous (1956). Prof. Hill, Fellow. Journal Royal Aeronautical Society 60(3): 147-150. P}

_{Barlow, H.M. (1956). Prof. G.T.R. Hill. Nature 177(4501): 211.}

_{Hill, G.T.R. (1948). The nature of the distortion of swept-back wings. Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society 52: 186-190. http://www.century-of-flight.net/ http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:EpG7GLHsERAJ:www.century-of-flight.net/ Aviation%2520history/flying%2520wings/europe_interwar.htm+GTR+hill+aerodynamics+RAF&hl=de&gl=ch&ct=clnk&cd=1}