|
|
|
|
|
Barnes WallisSir Barnes Neville Wallis, FRS, commonly known as Barnes Wallis, (September 26 1887 – October 30 1979) was a British scientist, engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the RAF in Operation Chastise (the Dambusters Raid) to attack the Mhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr area in May 1943, during World War II. Barnes Wallis was born in Ripley, Derbyshire and educated at Christ's Hospital School, leaving school at sixteen to start work in a shipyard. He originly trained as a marine engineer but turned his hand to airship design and then aircraft design. He worked for Vickers from 1911 until the end of WW2, at which point he moved to the British Aircraft Corporation to lead aeronautical research and development until his retirement in 1971. His many achievements include the pioneering geodetic design of the R100, in 1930 the largest airship yet designed. However, this work was made redundant by the tragedy that befell its sister ship, the R101, and the Hindenburg, and the subsequent abandonment of airships as a mode of mass transport. (Wallis was not involved with either of these airships.) Wallis's pre-war aircraft designs included the Vickers Wellesley and the Vickers Wellington, both also employing a geodetic design. The latter was 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, still astonish today. Following his achievements with the bouncing bomb, immortalised in the 1954 film The Dam Busters, Wallis designed the Tallboy (5 tonnes) and Grand Slam (10 tonnes) deep penetration ("blockbuster" or "earthquake") bombs used to attack V1 rocket launch sites, submarine pens, and other reinforced structures, as well as the Tirpitz battleship. These two bombs were the fore-runners of modern bunker-busting bombs, and could enter the earth at hypersonic velocity. Wallis also proposed the swing-wing but the idea was dismissed as unusable. Despite this his swing-wing idea is now central to the ability to transition from low speed to supersonic flight in many modern military aircraft. His pioneering BAC TSR-2 project was ignominiously scrapped in the late 60's. He also proposed using large cargo submarines to transport oil undersea hence avoiding surface weather conditions, an idea the Germans put this into practice on a tactical level, with their milch cows. The story described in The Dam Busters reflected a trend throughout his lifetime, that his ideas were rejected by those in authority (and who controlled funding sources). Following the appalling toll in aircrew from his Dambusters project, he made a conscious effort never again to endanger the lives of his test pilots. He also became a pioneer in remote control of aircraft. Wallis became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1954 and was knighted in 1968. Wallis appears as a character in Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships - the authorised sequel to The Time Machine. He is portrayed as a British engineer in an alternative history, where the First World War does not end in 1918, and Wallis concentrates his energies on developing a machine for time travel. As a consequence, it is the Germans who develop the bouncing bomb. Wallis, Barnes Wallis, Barnes Wallis, Barnes
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|