Janet Gulland

Janet Mary Gulland FRAeS MA CEng (18 July 1934 – 23 September 2017) was a British aeronautical engineer and the first female graduate engineering apprentice at Vickers-Armstrongs.

Education Gulland attended Berkhamsted Girls School and then went to Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford in 1953. There she intended to study mathematics but changed to engineering science, being the only woman in her year.

Career Gulland then took up a position in Vickers-Armstrongs' Aerodynamics Department, where she was involved in wind tunnel studies. During the 1960s she was also an Operational Researcher monitoring the performance of the TSR-2, a strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) for the Royal Air Force, and provided technical support and marketing intelligence to the sales team.

She was Chairman of the Weybridge branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society from 1989 to 2006, and was elected a Fellow of the Society in October 1994.

Personal life and interests Gulland had many interests outside her career, including sailing, skiing and Scottish dancing. She also enjoyed opera, concerts, theatre and exhibitions and travelled extensively with Sue, her partner for nearly 50 years.

Archive Her extensive collection of documents and photographs, recording her own career and evidencing her support for encouraging more women into engineering, was donated by Sue to Brooklands Museum.