WOMEN PLAN AIRCRAFT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 April 1942, Page 3

WOMEN PLAN AIRCRAFT

SCHOOL OF DRAUGHTMANSHIP. British aircraft manufacturers have opened the first school for training women in drawing office work, Mrs F. G. Miles, well-known as an aircraft designer, is a director of the company responsible for setting up the school, and there is no reason why many of the pupils, provided they have the ability and the knowledge of higher mathematics, should not follow her example and actually design Britain’s aeroplanes.

Women pupils, whose ages range from 21 to 40, are given a 14-week course beginning with lessons in lettering and tracing. Then old drawings are copied, until the trainees graduate to drawing a part and setting out detail dimensions. In addition to this desk work, the women study methods of production in the factories and also take flights in ’planes. At the end of the course they spend two months in the shops, after which they are _ ready to take their place in the drawing ficeWomen come from all walks of life to do this work. Some are tracers and factory workers; others are typists and commercial artists, while one, a Belgian girl, was undergoing training in electrical-therapy when war was declared. Once qualified, these women are paid according to merit, and may earn the same wages as men.