Why the Jewish Refugee Engineer, Ludwig Loewy was crucial to Britain

RAF planes for the Battle of Britain used new technology for aircraft construction and more powerful engines. Stressed skin monoplanes, like the Spitfire, replaced biplanes made of wood, fabric and wire. But the light alloys used to build the new designs were manufactured on German machinery. Dr Aylen tells the compelling story of Ludwig Loewy, a refugee Jewish engineer who fled from the Nazis and brought the crucial light-metals technology needed for rearmament from Germany to Britain in 1936.

Loewy Engineering was set up in London in April 1936 and soon won a wide range of orders from the rapidly growing aluminium alloy sector, as well as for heavy machinery for making tubes for naval warships. This new firm played a key role in Britain’s rearmament programme and Second World War production. Ludwig Loewy himself was celebrated as an engineer. The research sheds new light into the careers of refugee engineers who fled from persecution and found new roles in Britain’s manufacturing sector.

About the Lecturer

Dr Jonathan Aylen has researched aerospace technologies including missile guidance systems and Britain’s early atomic bombs. He has also written on innovation in rolling mill technology and on revolutionary computer use at British Rail. This lively presentation draws on his current work on refugee engineers.

Dr Aylen is a visiting researcher at the University of Manchester and a past President of the Newcomen Society.