A . M . Hamilton Archibald Milne Hamilton ( 1898 – 1972 ) was a New Zealand - born civil engineer , notable for building the Hamilton Road through Kurdistan and designing the Callender - Hamilton bridge system . His name is also associated with the Callendar - Hamilton aeroplane shed of the late 1930s . Early life , marriage and children . He was born in Waimate , New Zealand , the son of W . M . and J . S . Hamilton on 18 November 1898 . He was educated at Waitaki Boys ' High School . In 1924 he graduated from Canterbury College with a Bachelor of Engineering ( Civil ) degree . He married Bettina Matraves Collier , a medical doctor in 1934 , and they had six children . The second eldest of these was the evolutionary biologist W . D . Hamilton , and one of their daughters , Mary R . Bliss , who followed her mother by becoming a doctor , achieved some notability for designing mattresses . Early career . He worked for the Lyttelton Harbour Board , New Zealand where he designed a wave model for planning port improvements . Next he worked at the Admiralty , London , designing the Singapore Naval Base . Hamilton Road . Between 1928 and 1932 Hamilton was the principal engineer of a British - built strategic road across Iraqi Kurdistan , which ran from Arbil , through Rawandiz , to the Iranian border near modern - day Piranshahr . The road became known as the Hamilton Road . Although Hamilton hoped the road would unite the peoples of the region , it has been fought over many times . He described the building of the road in a 1937 book entitled " Road through Kurdistan " . Callender - Hamilton Bridge . During the construction of the road , Hamilton became aware of the need for strong , adaptable bridges with components that could easily be transported and erected in remote and / or difficult terrain . With British Insulated Callenders Cables , now Balfour Beatty Power Networks Ltd , he designed the Callender - Hamilton bridge system , the income from which helped support his family . The parts of the bridge were bolted together like a Meccano set , and it was popular with the British Army away from the battle front . The failure of the First World War Inglis bridge led to the development of the Bailey bridge . Hamilton successfully claimed to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors that the ' Bailey ' bridge had breached his patent . Because the ' Bailey ' used a pin joining system similar to that used in a Martel design , Hamilton told the Commission the bridge should be called a ' Martel Mk2 ' . The War Office , in 1936 , gave Hamilton 4000 pounds for the free non - civil use of his Unit Construction bridge . In 1954 the Commission gave him 10000 pounds for the bridges used in S . E . A . C . in India . In 1955 Hamilton told the Commission that Martel deserved more than the 12000 pounds that Bailey got , Martel was given 500 pounds . Callendar - Hamilton Aeroplane Shed . BICC also designed an interesting type of transportable aeroplane hangar in the late 1930s for military use . Although not ordered in quantity by the Air Ministry , a number of these Callendar - Hamilton hangars were built in Britain in the late 1930s and early years of World War II . These are easily recognisable from the more numerous contemporary Bellman and T - type hangars by their intricate internal framework and external overhead door rails . Preserved examples - now listed - of these hangars can be seen today at the Museum of Flight at East Fortune near Edinburgh .