Lives of the First World War

Lieutenant Colonel Mervyn J P O'Gorman Royal Engineers Lt Col O'Gorman (1871-1958) was educated at University College Dublin. One of the earliest aeronautical research designers, O'Gorman was Superintendant of the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough during 1909-1916. During this period, he oversaw the Factory's transition from the Royal Balloon Factory to the design and construction of heavier than air aircraft. During his period of office, the Factory, which had no initial funding or licence to build aircraft and was therefore reliant on the donation of used aircraft for its early work, produced the SE1, BE2 and BS1 aircraft. Lt Col O'Gorman was apointed CB in 1913. From 1916 - 1917, O'Gorman served as Chief Engineer to the Director General of Military Aeronautics to the Air Board.

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