Letitia Chitty

Letitia Chitty (15 July 1897 – 29 September 1982) was an English engineer who became a respected structural analytical engineer, achieving several firsts for women engineers, including becoming the first female fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the second female recipient of the Telford Medal.

Early life Born at 51 Campden House Road, Kensington, London, she was the eldest of four sisters and one brother. Her father Herbert Chitty (1863–1949) was a barrister and (from 1907) bursar of Winchester College. Her mother was Mabel Agatha (née Bradby; 1865–1944). Her paternal grandfather was the judge Sir Joseph William Chitty and her maternal grandfather was Canon Edward Henry Bradby, the headmaster of Haileybury College.

Her godmother was Violet Jex-Blake, niece of the suffragist and first female medical graduate in the UK, Sophia Jex-Blake.

Education

Chitty was privately educated between 1903 and 1916, latterly at Kensington High School. She entered Newnham College, Cambridge in 1916, taking the first part of the Tripos. During World War I, as part of a British programme to identify the best female mathematics graduates and current students, she was selected for war work with Alfred Pippard at the Admiralty Air Department at age 19. After the war she returned to her studies, changed subject to engineering, and graduated with a titular degree

Early career Her early career focused on analysing the stresses of airframes, airships and civil engineering structures, initially with the Admiralty Air Department and then, after graduating, at the Air Ministry with Richard Southwell and Alfred Pippard.

Work with Tarrant Tabor At the end of the war, W. G. Tarrant, who was previously a timber merchant, built a massive bomber: the Tarrant Tabor. The original biplane design had to be altered to triplane to accommodate more engines, and the Admiralty Air Department was asked to check its structural strength. Chitty was given this task.

In her own words:

"Mr. Tarrant was an inspired timber merchant who dreamed of a super-Camel. It hadn't a chance. It was too big, too heavy - that wasn't its fault, but Grade A spruce had by now run out and it had to be built of American white wood (tulip). In my language, 3,500 instead of 5,500 lb/sq in."

The plane pitched over during its first take-off at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough on 26 May 1919, killing both pilots and seriously injuring the other six people on board.

In her will, she left a bequest to Imperial College, which named its Library reading room after her. Imperial College also presents a Letitia Chitty Centenary Memorial Prize, while Newnham College has presented a 'Letitia Chitty Award for Engineering'.