Elizabeth Muriel Gregory MacGill OC (March 27, 1905 – November 4, 1980), known as the "Queen of the Hurricanes", was a Canadian engineer.

She was chief aeronautical engineer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CC&F) in Fort William, Ontario[1] during the Second World War.

There she oversaw manufacturing of 1,451 Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the British Royal Air Force, then 835 Curtiss Helldivers for the U.S. Navy, which contributed greatly to the war effort and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of aircraft manufacturing.

In the early years, the MacGill children were home-schooled in a formal setting to mimic that of Lord Roberts, the public school that the older boys attended.

After 1911, racial strife in British Columbia continued to escalate, and Jim MacGill's immigration-related legal work was directly impacted.

Her early aptitude for "fixing things" stood the family in good stead, and informed discussions of possible careers.

During the summers she worked in machine shops repairing electrical motors to supplement the theory and practical teachings during the school year.

[7] After graduating, MacGill took a junior job with Austin Aircraft Company[8] in Pontiac, Michigan, which furthered her interest in aeronautics.

[13] She presented a paper, "Simplified Performance Calculations for Aeroplanes", to the Royal Aeronautical Society in Ottawa, on March 22, 1938, to high praise.

[16] The Maple Leaf Trainer was designed and first built in CanCar's Fort William (now Thunder Bay) factories, where MacGill had moved.

Her role in the company changed when the factory was selected to build the Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF).

She was also responsible for designing solutions to allow the aircraft to operate during the winter, introducing de-icing controls and a system for fitting skis for landing on snow.

[18][19] In 1940 she wrote and presented a paper on the experience, "Factors Affecting Mass Production of Aeroplanes", later published in The Engineering Journal .

After Hurricane production ended, CanCar looked for new work and secured a contract from the United States Navy to build Curtiss SB2C Helldivers.

Again MacGill was responsible for all engineering and production work, and the plant ultimately produced 835 aircraft, significantly contributing to Allied air power.

The active public service and work of her mother and grandmother in the suffrage movement inspired Elsie to spend more time dealing with women's rights in the 1960s.

In 1942, MacGill was hired as Chief Aeronautical Engineer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CanCar), becoming the first woman in the world to hold such a position.

[21] MacGill's paper, Factors Affecting the Mass Production of Aeroplanes, won the Gzowski Medal from the Engineering Institute of Canada in 1941.

[27] MacGill was awarded the Centennial Medal by the Canadian government in 1967,[23] and the Order of Canada in 1971 for "services as an aeronautical engineering consultant and as a member of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women."