Barnes Wallis
Barnes Wallis | |
---|---|
inventor | |
Known for | Inventing the bouncing bomb, geodetic airframe design and the earthquake bomb |
Parents |
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Awards | Albert Medal (1968) Royal Medal (1975) |
Sir Barnes Neville Wallis
The raid was the subject of the 1955 film The Dam Busters, in which Wallis was played by Michael Redgrave. Among his other inventions were his version of the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb.
Early life and education
Barnes Wallis was born in
Aircraft and geodetic construction
Wallis left J. Samuel White's in 1913 when an opportunity arose for him as an
By the time he came to design the
Despite a better-than-expected performance and a successful return flight to
By the time of the R101 crash, Wallis had moved to the Vickers aircraft factory at the Brooklands motor circuit and aerodrome between Byfleet and Weybridge in Surrey. The prewar aircraft designs of Rex Pierson, the Wellesley, the Wellington and the later Warwick and Windsor all employed Wallis's geodetic design in the fuselage and wing structures.
The Wellington had one of the most robust airframes ever developed, and pictures of its skeleton largely shot away, but still sound enough to bring its crew home safely, are still impressive. The geodetic construction offered a light and strong airframe (compared to conventional designs), with clearly defined space within for fuel tanks, payload and so on. However the technique was not easily transferred to other aircraft manufacturers, nor was Vickers able to build other designs in factories tooled for geodetic work.
Bombs
After the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in 1939, Wallis saw a need for strategic bombing to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war and he wrote a paper titled "A Note on a Method of Attacking the Axis Powers". Referring to the enemy's power supplies, he wrote (as Axiom 3): "If their destruction or paralysis can be accomplished they offer a means of rendering the enemy utterly incapable of continuing to prosecute the war". As a means to do this, he proposed huge bombs that could concentrate their force and destroy targets which were otherwise unlikely to be affected. Wallis's first super-large bomb design came out at some ten tons, far more than any current bomber could carry. Rather than drop the idea, this led him to suggest a plane that could carry it – the "Victory Bomber".
Early in 1942, Wallis began experimenting with skipping marbles over water tanks in his garden, leading to his April 1942 paper "
A crucial innovation was to spin the bomb. The spin direction determined the number of bounces/range of the bomb. A change to backspin (rather than top-spin), was put forward by another Vickers designer, George Edwards, based on his knowledge as a cricketer.
The raid on these dams in May 1943 (Operation
After the success of the bouncing bomb, Wallis was able to return to his huge bombs, producing first the Tallboy (6 tonnes) and then the Grand Slam (10 tonnes) deep-penetration earthquake bombs. These were not the same as the 5-tonne "blockbuster" bomb, which was a conventional blast bomb.
Although there was still no aircraft capable of lifting these two bombs to their optimal release altitude, they could be dropped from a lower height, entering the earth at supersonic speed and penetrating to a depth of 20 metres before exploding. They were used on strategic German targets such as V-2 rocket launch sites, the V-3 supergun bunker, submarine pens and other reinforced structures, large civil constructions such as viaducts and bridges, as well as the German battleship Tirpitz. They were the forerunners of modern bunker-busting bombs.
Post-war research
Aircraft design
Having been dispersed with the Design Office from Brooklands to the nearby Burhill Golf Club in Hersham, after the Vickers factory was badly bombed in September 1940, Wallis returned to Brooklands in November 1945 as head of the Vickers-Armstrongs Research & Development Department which was based in the former motor circuit's 1907 clubhouse. Here he and his staff worked on many futuristic aerospace projects including supersonic flight and "swing-wing" technology (later used in the Panavia Tornado and other aircraft types). Following the high death toll of the aircrews involved in the Dambusters raid, he made a conscious effort never again to endanger the lives of his test pilots. His designs were extensively tested in model form, and consequently he became a pioneer in the remote control of aircraft.
A massive 19,533 square feet (1,814.7 m2) Stratosphere Chamber (which was the world's largest facility of its type) was designed and built beside the clubhouse by 1948. It became the focus for much R&D work under Wallis's direction in the 1950s and 1960s, including research into
Although he did not invent the concept, Wallis did much pioneering engineering work to make the
An attempt to gain American funding led Wallis to initiate a joint
Other work
In the 1950s, Wallis developed an experimental rocket-propelled
In 1955, Wallis agreed to act as a consultant to the project to build the
In the 1960s, Wallis also proposed using large cargo submarines to transport oil and other goods, thus avoiding surface weather conditions. Moreover, Wallis's calculations indicated, the power requirements for an underwater vessel were lower than for a comparable conventional ship and they could be made to travel at a much higher speed.[8] He also proposed a novel hull structure which would have allowed greater depths to be reached, and the use of gas turbine engines in a submarine, using liquid oxygen.[15] In the end, nothing came of Wallis's submarine ideas.
During the 1960s and into his retirement, he developed ideas for an "all-speed" aircraft, capable of efficient flight at all speed ranges from subsonic to
In the late 1950s, Wallis gave a lecture titled "The strength of England" at
Honours and awards
Wallis became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1945, was knighted in 1968,[17] and received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1969.[18]
Charity work
Wallis was awarded £10,000 for his war work from the
Wallis was an active member of the Royal Air Forces Association, the charity that supports the RAF community.[22]
Personal life
In April 1922, Wallis met his cousin-in-law, Molly Bloxam, at a family tea party. She was 17 and he was 34, and her father forbade them from courting. However, he allowed Wallis to assist Molly with her mathematics courses by correspondence, and they wrote some 250 letters, enlivening them with fictional characters such as "Duke Delta X". The letters gradually became personal, and Wallis proposed marriage on her 20th birthday. They were married on 23 April 1925, and remained so for 54 years until his death in 1979.[23]
For 49 years, from 1930 until his death, Wallis lived with his family in Effingham, Surrey, and he is now buried at the local St. Lawrence Church together with his wife. His epitaph in Latin reads "Spernit Humum Fugiente Penna" (Severed from the earth with fleeting wing), a quotation from Horace Ode III.2.
They had four children – Barnes (1926–2008), Mary (1927–2019), Elisabeth (b. 1933) and Christopher (1935–2006) – and also adopted Molly's sister's children John and Robert McCormick when their parents were killed in an air raid.
His daughter Mary Eyre Wallis later married Harry Stopes-Roe, a son of Marie Stopes.[24] His son Christopher Loudon Wallis was instrumental in the restoration of the watermill and its building on the Stanway Estate near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Wallis was a vegetarian and an advocate of animal rights. He became a vegetarian at age 73.[25]
In film and fiction
In the 1955 film The Dam Busters, Wallis was played by Michael Redgrave. Wallis's daughter Elisabeth played the camera technician in the water tank sequence.
Wallis and his development of the bouncing bomb are mentioned by Charles Gray in the 1969 film Mosquito Squadron.
Wallis appears as a fictionalised character in
His character and the Second World War research lab are featured in the mystery British television series
In
Memorials
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2023) |
- Plaques and sculptures
- There is a statue to Wallis, created by American sculptor Tom White in 2008, in
- A Red Wheel heritage plaque commemorating Wallis's contribution as "Designer of airships, aeroplanes, the 'Bouncing Bomb' and swing-wing aircraft" was erected by the Transport Trust at Wallis's birthplace in Ripley, Derbyshire, on 31 May 2009.
- A Lewisham Council plaque is located at 241 New Cross Road in New Cross, London, where Wallis lived from 1892 to 1909.[28]
- A plaque by the main entrance to the former Barrow in Furness, where he was Chief Designer for Vickers Ltd Airship Department.
- A Hillingdon Council memorial is located in Moor Lane, Harmondsworth, at the site where the Road Research Laboratory conducted tests on model dams to assist Barnes Wallis in his development of the bouncing bomb.
- Sculpted busts of Wallis are held by Brooklands Museum and the RAF Club at Piccadilly, London.
- Buildings
- The Student Union Building on the University of Manchester North Campus is named in Wallis's honour; Wallis was awarded lifetime membership of the Students' Union in 1967.
- Nottingham Trent University also has a building named after Wallis, on Goldsmith Street.
- QinetiQ's site in Farnborough, Hampshire, includes a building named in Wallis's honour, the former site of the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
- A public house named after Sir Barnes Wallis was located in the town of his birth, Ripley, Derbyshire, before being demolished in January 2022.
- A public house named The Barnes Wallis existed for many years near the railway station in Howden, East Riding of Yorkshire. Wallis was involved in airship work at the airship sheds near Howden in the early part of the 20th century. The building is now a private residence.
- Street names
- There is a Barnes Wallis Drive in Byfleet in Surrey within the former Brooklands aerodrome and motor circuit, also Barnes Wallis Close, Effingham, Surrey, not far from where he lived.
- Additionally, Barnes Wallis Close in Chickerell, Weymouth, which is within sight of the Fleet Lagoon bounded by Chesil Beach, where Wallis tested the bouncing bomb, and also a Barnes Road which is off Wallis Street in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
- There is a Barnes Wallis Close in Bowerhill, Melksham, Wiltshire.
- There is also a Barnes Wallis Drive in Apley in Telford, Shropshire, and Segensworth in Hampshire.
- Barnes Wallis Avenue at Christ's Hospital.
- Barnes Wallis Way in Churchdown, Gloucestershire.
- In Buckshaw Village, Lancashire, a housing estate built on the site of an old Royal Ordnance Factory, a road is named Barnes Wallis Way.
- A housing estate on the site of RFC Marske in the North Yorkshire village of Marske-by-the-Sea is named after Wallis.
- Other
- The Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington near York has a permanent display of the Dambusters raid including a replica bouncing bomb and the catapult used to skim stones to test the bouncing bomb theory. A brief history of Wallis's work is also part of the display.
- The Scafell Hotel in Rosthwaite, Keswick, has a Barnes Wallis Suite; the hotel was a favourite holiday retreat of his.
- The RAF Manston History Museum, Kent, features a section on Operation Chastise (The Dams Raid) and includes one of the few recovered practice 'Bouncing Bombs' that were tested on a sea range near Herne Bay by Lancaster bombers temporarily based at RAF Manston Airfield.
Archives
The
Two boxes of records, containing copies of key aeronautical papers written between 1940 and 1958, are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge.[30]
Other Barnes Wallis papers are also held at Brooklands Museum, the Imperial War Museum, London, Newark Air Museum and the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Bristol, Leeds and Oxford universities.[31] The RAF Museum at Hendon also has a reconstruction of his postwar office at Brooklands.
References
Citations
- ISBN 978-1409030409.
- ^ "Engineering Timelines – Birthplace of Sir Barnes Neville Wallis". www.engineering-timelines.com.
- ^ "No. 44735". The London Gazette. 13 December 1968. p. 13425.
- ^ "Historic Methods of Entry". www.christs-hospital.org.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
- ^ Archives, The National. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
- ^ Anderson, Tatum (16 May 2007). "History lessons at the people's university". Guardian Weekly. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008.
- ^ "Barnes Wallis" (PDF). Manitoba Military Aviation Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2014.
- ^ a b Morpurgo (1972).
- ISBN 0 7509 4389 0, p.42
- ^ Wood (1975), pp.182-191.
- ^ Wood (1975), pp.194-199.
- ^ Kirby, Geoff (2000). "The Development of Rocket-propelled Torpedoes" (PDF).
- ^ Robertson (1992) pp. 146–147.
- ^ Robertson (1992) pp. 145
- ^ Murray (2009).
- ISBN 978-0-521-85636-2.
- ^ "BBC – History – Historic Figures: Barnes Wallis (1887–1979)". Retrieved 7 April 2016.
- ^ "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". www1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
- ^ Historic Methods of Entry Archived 25 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Christ's Hospital School.
- ^ Morpurgo (1981), p.361
- ^ Morpurgo (1981), pp.361-6.
- ^ Air Mail (Autumn 1975), pp.38-40.
- ^ Shepherd, Jessica (2 May 2005). "Letters of love talk of maths". Birmingham Post.
- ^ Pugh (2005) p. 180.
- ^ Bateman, Michael. (2008). A Delicious Way to Earn a Living: A Collection of His Best and Tastiest Food. Grub Street. "Dr Barnes, inventor, has been vegetarian for nearly 15 years."
- ^ libraryqtlpitkix.onion.link/library/Fiction/Stephen Baxter – The Time Ships.pdf p. 159 "I was just eight years old when your prototype CDV departed for the future..."
- ^ "Sir Barnes Wallis statue". Tom White. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ "Sir Barnes Wallis – Image". www.sirbarneswallis.com.
- ^ "Item information: Papers of Sir Barnes Wallis". Science Museum Library, Swindon. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
- ^ "The Papers of Sir Barnes Neville Wallis". Archivesearch. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
- National Register of Archives. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
Bibliography
- Boorer, N.W. (2008). The Stratosphere Chamber. Weybridge, Surrey: Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd.
- Boorer, N.W. (2008). Sir Barnes Wallis, CBE, FRS, RDII, FRAeS 1887–1979. Weybridge, Surrey: Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd.
- Flower, Steven (2002). Hell of a Bomb: How the Bombs of Barnes Wallis Helped Win the Second World War. Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-2386-9.
- Flower, Steven (2004). Barnes Wallis' Bombs: Tallboy, Dambuster and Grand Slam. Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-2987-8.
- Morpurgo, J.E. (1972). Barnes Wallis, A Biography. London: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-10360-3.
- Morpurgo, J.E. (1981). Barnes Wallis, A Biography (2nd ed.). London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1119-2.
- Murray, Iain (2009). Bouncing-Bomb Man: the Science of Sir Barnes Wallis. Haynes. ISBN 978-1-84425-588-7.
- Pugh, Peter (2005). Barnes Wallis Dambuster. Icon. ISBN 978-1-84046-685-0.
- Robertson, Peter (1992). Beyond Southern Skies: Radio Astronomy and the Parkes Telescope. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-41408-1.
- Stopes-Roe, Mary (2005). Mathematics with Love: The Courtship Correspondence of Barnes Wallis, Inventor of the Bouncing Bomb. Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-4498-6.
- Wood, Derek (1975). Project Cancelled. London: Macdonald and Jane's.
External links
- Examples of papers from RAF museum
- The Papers of Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, Churchill Archives Centre
- A short biography of Wallis
- The Barnes Wallis Memorial Trust
- Sir Barnes Wallis, Iain Murray
- BBC history page on Barnes Wallis
- The Dambusters (617 Squadron) and Barnes Wallis
- HEYDAY torpedo, Explosion! Museum of Naval Firepower.
- "The Development of Rocket-propelled Torpedoes", by Geoff Kirby (2000) includes HEYDAY.
- Wallis's impact on Effingham where he lived and the story of the swing-wing aircraft that flew without a tail
- Barnes Wallis at IMDb