Walter Gordon Wilson

Major Walter Gordon Wilson CMG (21 April 1874 – 1 July 1957) was an Irish mechanical engineer, inventor and member of the British Royal Naval Air Service.

Interested in powered flight, he collaborated with Percy Sinclair Pilcher and the Hon Adrian Verney-Cave later Lord Braye to attempt to make an aero-engine from 1898.

The engine was a flat-twin air cooled and weighed only 40 lb, but shortly before a demonstration flight planned for 30 September 1899 it suffered a crankshaft failure.

[4] The shock of Pilcher's death, at only 33 years old, ended Wilson's plans for aero engines, though he kept the flat twin concept and used it in the cars he subsequently manufactured which he named Wilson-Pilcher.

This car was quite remarkable in that it was available with either flat-four or flat-six engines, which were very well balanced, and with a low centre of gravity making good stability.

The sole known surviving Wilson-Pilcher car is a four-cylinder version that was retained by the Amstrong Whitworth factory and after restoration in the 1940s was presented to W.G.Wilson in the 1950s.

When the Admiralty began investigating armoured fighting vehicles under the Landship Committee in 1915, 20 Squadron was assigned to it and Wilson was placed in charge[6] of the experiments.