Anne Burns
Encyclopedia
Anne Burns was a British aeronautical engineer and glider pilot
.
, Yorkshire. She attended The Abbey School
, Reading, and then went to St Hugh's College, Oxford
, where, only the second woman to read Engineering Sciences at Oxford University, she was awarded the Edgell Shepee Scholarship and graduated with a First in 1936. She also won a hockey Blue and squash 'Half Blue'.
as a ferry pilot, but her engineering expertise precluded this and in 1940 she was employed by the Ministry of Supply
, joining what became the Structures and Mechanical Department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment
(RAE) at Farnborough, Hampshire
, as a scientific assistant
Her early work concentrated on flutter problems and on the measurement of the loads imposed on aircraft structures during flight. Other wartime tasks included the development of windscreen wipers for bombers and the double windscreen enclosing a supply of warm air to improve visibility. During this time she made test flights in many types of military aircraft from Tiger Moths
to Hawker Typhoon
s & Gloster Meteor
s.
In the late 1940s she was the first flight-test observer (FTO) in the UK to use strain gauges in an aircraft in flight. In 1953 she became a Principal Scientific Officer. During the investigation in 1954 into the crashes of the early de Havilland Comet
jet airliners, she made many flights as an FTO in unpressurised Comets, sometimes up to 40,000 feet. It was known that the aircraft had broken up in flight while flying above 25,000 ft. In her own words "We flew about waiting for the windows to blow out." The following year Burns was awarded the Queen's Commendation in recognition of her bravery and her contribution to the investigation. In 1958 she was also awarded the R.P. Alston Medal by the Royal Aeronautical Society
for this work.
She became an expert on clear-air turbulence
the rare phenomenon sometimes encountered by airliners likened to flying into a brick wall. Some of her research into turbulent air was conducted in her Fournier RF-4
. In 1963 she was awarded a second Queen's Commendation, this time for her flights in an English Electric Canberra
carrying out low- and high-level-gust research. The Royal Aeronautical Society awarded her its Silver Medal for Aeronautics in 1966, and in 1968, when she was working on clear-air turbulence, flying as an observer in several countries, she was presented with the Whitney Straight
Award for her services to aeronautical research and flying. She retired from the RAE in 1976 after accumulating 1,500 hours of flight time as an observer. She met her husband Denis Burns at the RAE and they married in 1947.
during the war, Anne Burns took up gliding
as a sport in 1954 winning awards and establishing both national and international records. On her first cross-country flight, from Lasham
, Hampshire in an Eon Olympia
she reached RAF Ternhill
, Shropshire in 4hr 55min breaking the British women's distance record. In December 1956, she flew a Slingsby Skylark 3b
following a bungee launch to 11890 feet (3,624.1 m) setting new women's British national and UK absolute altitude and gain-of-height records. Again flying a Skylark 3, she became the first woman to cross the English Channel
in a glider in 1957.
By 1961 she held 10 of the 11 UK women's records including the current altitude record of 10550 metres (34,612.9 ft). In breaking the altitude record in South Africa she had entered the base of a cumulonimbus cloud at about 6,000ft above ground. On the way up, there were electrical discharges to the pilot's knees from various metal parts of the aircraft. At about 34,000ft there was a nearby major strike which discharged itself violently through the left wing. A small panel from the wing was blown away. Anne was temporarily confused by this shock but, coming-to more or less instantaneously, she decided it was time to get out of the cloud and descend.
In 1962, Denis and Anne Burns were jointly awarded awarded the Royal Aero Club's Britannia Trophy
for their gliding achievements. In 1963 she claimed the women's world record for speed over a 500km triangular course of 103.33km/h. In 1966 she became British Gliding Champion, the first woman to hold the title. She received many other awards for gliding achievements including the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Lilienthal Gliding Medal
in 1966.
In 1977 her glider was hit by a bird and damaged. She baled out but became tangled in the shrouds, nevertheless escaping with only an injured ankle by landing in a sycamore tree. She thus became the first woman since the 1930s to become a member of Irvin's Caterpillar Club
and aged 62, she was also the oldest person ever to join this club. She then gave up gliding and took up fly fishing and snooker, again winning awards in both sports.
Gliding
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...
.
Early life
Anne Pellew was born in HaworthHaworth
Haworth is a rural village in the City of Bradford metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is located amongst the Pennines, southwest of Keighley and west of Bradford. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope...
, Yorkshire. She attended The Abbey School
The Abbey School
The Abbey School is an independent selective day school for girls, in Reading, Berkshire, England. The school has Church of England traditions, although it accepts girls of all faiths...
, Reading, and then went to St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a fourteen and a half acre site on St Margaret's Road, to the North of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 as a women's college, and accepted its first male students in its centenary year in 1986...
, where, only the second woman to read Engineering Sciences at Oxford University, she was awarded the Edgell Shepee Scholarship and graduated with a First in 1936. She also won a hockey Blue and squash 'Half Blue'.
RAE Farnborough
She did research work under Professor Richard Southwell at the university's engineering laboratory, and at the outbreak of the Second World War she applied to join the Air Transport AuxiliaryAir Transport Auxiliary
The Air Transport Auxiliary was a British World War II civilian organisation that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between UK factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, Maintenance Units , scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields—but not to...
as a ferry pilot, but her engineering expertise precluded this and in 1940 she was employed by the Ministry of Supply
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...
, joining what became the Structures and Mechanical Department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...
(RAE) at Farnborough, Hampshire
Farnborough, Hampshire
-History:Name changes: Ferneberga ; Farnburghe, Farenberg ; Farnborowe, Fremborough, Fameborough .Tower Hill, Cove: There is substantial evidence...
, as a scientific assistant
Her early work concentrated on flutter problems and on the measurement of the loads imposed on aircraft structures during flight. Other wartime tasks included the development of windscreen wipers for bombers and the double windscreen enclosing a supply of warm air to improve visibility. During this time she made test flights in many types of military aircraft from Tiger Moths
De Havilland Tiger Moth
The de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and was operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk in 1952, when many of the surplus aircraft...
to Hawker Typhoon
Hawker Typhoon
The Hawker Typhoon was a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. While the Typhoon was designed to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, and a direct replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, several design problems were encountered, and the Typhoon never completely satisfied...
s & Gloster Meteor
Gloster Meteor
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. It first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with 616 Squadron of the Royal Air Force...
s.
In the late 1940s she was the first flight-test observer (FTO) in the UK to use strain gauges in an aircraft in flight. In 1953 she became a Principal Scientific Officer. During the investigation in 1954 into the crashes of the early de Havilland Comet
De Havilland Comet
The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design...
jet airliners, she made many flights as an FTO in unpressurised Comets, sometimes up to 40,000 feet. It was known that the aircraft had broken up in flight while flying above 25,000 ft. In her own words "We flew about waiting for the windows to blow out." The following year Burns was awarded the Queen's Commendation in recognition of her bravery and her contribution to the investigation. In 1958 she was also awarded the R.P. Alston Medal by the Royal Aeronautical Society
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...
for this work.
She became an expert on clear-air turbulence
Clear-Air Turbulence
Clear air turbulence is the turbulent movement of air masses in the absence of any visual cues such as clouds, and is caused when bodies of air moving at widely different speeds meet....
the rare phenomenon sometimes encountered by airliners likened to flying into a brick wall. Some of her research into turbulent air was conducted in her Fournier RF-4
Fournier RF-4
-References:* Harrison, Neil. . Flight International, 2 May 1968. pp. 669–670....
. In 1963 she was awarded a second Queen's Commendation, this time for her flights in an English Electric Canberra
English Electric Canberra
The English Electric Canberra is a first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers through the 1950s. The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 ft in 1957...
carrying out low- and high-level-gust research. The Royal Aeronautical Society awarded her its Silver Medal for Aeronautics in 1966, and in 1968, when she was working on clear-air turbulence, flying as an observer in several countries, she was presented with the Whitney Straight
Whitney Straight
Air Commodore Whitney Willard Straight CBE, MC, DFC was a Grand Prix motor racing driver, aviator, businessman, and a member of the prominent Whitney family of the United States....
Award for her services to aeronautical research and flying. She retired from the RAE in 1976 after accumulating 1,500 hours of flight time as an observer. She met her husband Denis Burns at the RAE and they married in 1947.
Gliding
Although she had flown military assault glidersMilitary glider
Military gliders have been used by the military of various countries for carrying troops and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft were towed into the air and most of the way to their target by military transport planes, e.g...
during the war, Anne Burns took up gliding
Gliding
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...
as a sport in 1954 winning awards and establishing both national and international records. On her first cross-country flight, from Lasham
Lasham Airfield
Lasham Airfield is located north-west of Alton in Hampshire, England, in the village of Lasham.It was built in 1942 and it was an operational RAF during the Second World War. It was used for recreational gliding from 1951. The airfield is now owned by the world's largest gliding club, Lasham...
, Hampshire in an Eon Olympia
EoN Olympia
The Eon Olympia was a glider produced from 1947 by Elliotts of Newbury.-Design and development:Elliotts had been asked in 1945 by Chilton Aircraft Ltd to make one set of wings for the Chilton Olympia, a glider that had been developed in pre-war Germany as the DFS Olympia Meise. This had been...
she reached RAF Ternhill
RAF Ternhill
RAF Ternhill is a small Royal Air Force station at Ternhill in Shropshire, near the towns of Newport and Market Drayton. The station, home of Volunteer Gliding Squadron 632, was a helicopter base but is now principally used as an outpost for the tri-service helicopter training establishment at RAF...
, Shropshire in 4hr 55min breaking the British women's distance record. In December 1956, she flew a Slingsby Skylark 3b
Slingsby Skylark
|-References:* Ellison, N.H. British Gliders and Sailplanes 1922-1970. A & C Black, 1971* Simons, M. Slingsby Sailplanes. Airlife Publishing, 1996 - ISBN 1-85310-732-8* accessed 21 Nov 2008...
following a bungee launch to 11890 feet (3,624.1 m) setting new women's British national and UK absolute altitude and gain-of-height records. Again flying a Skylark 3, she became the first woman to cross the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
in a glider in 1957.
By 1961 she held 10 of the 11 UK women's records including the current altitude record of 10550 metres (34,612.9 ft). In breaking the altitude record in South Africa she had entered the base of a cumulonimbus cloud at about 6,000ft above ground. On the way up, there were electrical discharges to the pilot's knees from various metal parts of the aircraft. At about 34,000ft there was a nearby major strike which discharged itself violently through the left wing. A small panel from the wing was blown away. Anne was temporarily confused by this shock but, coming-to more or less instantaneously, she decided it was time to get out of the cloud and descend.
In 1962, Denis and Anne Burns were jointly awarded awarded the Royal Aero Club's Britannia Trophy
Britannia Trophy
The Britannia Trophy is a British award presented by the Royal Aero Club for aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviaton during the previous year....
for their gliding achievements. In 1963 she claimed the women's world record for speed over a 500km triangular course of 103.33km/h. In 1966 she became British Gliding Champion, the first woman to hold the title. She received many other awards for gliding achievements including the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
FAI Gliding Commission
The International Gliding Commission is a leading international governing body for the sport of gliding.It is one of several Air Sport Commissions of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , or "World Air Sports Federation"...
Lilienthal Gliding Medal
Lilienthal Gliding Medal
Lilienthal Gliding Medal – the highest soaring award in the world, established by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1938 in honor of Otto Lilienthal, a German pioneer of human aviation. It aims "to reward a particularly remarkable performance in gliding, or eminent services to the sport of...
in 1966.
In 1977 her glider was hit by a bird and damaged. She baled out but became tangled in the shrouds, nevertheless escaping with only an injured ankle by landing in a sycamore tree. She thus became the first woman since the 1930s to become a member of Irvin's Caterpillar Club
Caterpillar Club
The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin...
and aged 62, she was also the oldest person ever to join this club. She then gave up gliding and took up fly fishing and snooker, again winning awards in both sports.