William Higley Sayers, Cpt. Technical Editor, The Aeroplane. (B. 1884, D. 1943). Sayers was an electrical engineer who began work experimenting with aviation pioneers Handley Page and A.V. Roe. After the outbreak of war in 1914, he became a Design Officer at the Royal Naval Aircraft Experimental Station on the Isle of Grain, then becoming involved in the design of seaplanes. He served as Technical Editor of The Aeroplane in 1914 and again from 1919 until 1928, offering thorough and incisive (several felt overly negative) critiques of various aeronautical projects of the day.
After a workplace dispute, he left to start engineering work with Boulton and Paul, which would later play a key role in the construction of R101. He worked as Senior Assistant to J. D. North, but although North’s team was small and Sayers was definitely involved with work on her, he was not employed in any decision-making capacity about that airship’s structure.
He was also never summoned to the R101 Court of Inquiry, which backs up the notion that his work on that airship was somewhat at arm’s length. He is better known for developing the light civilian HTA aircraft type Phoenix, which first flew in 1929. Sayers passed away in 1943.