Barnes wallis family tree

British Broadcasting Corporation Home. Wallis worked first at a marine engineering firm and in he moved to Vickers, where he designed airships, including the R In , Wallis transferred to working on aircraft.

Barnes wallis bouncing bomb

His achievements included the first use of geodesic design in engineering, which was used in his development of the Wellesley and Wellington bombers. In February , Wallis revealed his idea for air attacks on dams in Germany. He had developed a drum-shaped, rotating bomb that would bounce over the water, roll down the dam's wall and explode at its base.

The bomb was codenamed 'Upkeep'. Two of the dams - the Mohne and Eder - were breached, leading to serious flooding in the surrounding area, although industrial production was not significantly affected, and 8 of the 19 bombers which took part were lost.

How old was barnes wallis when he died

The most significant result was the hugely positive effect on Allied morale. When the decision was taken to concentrate on area bombing, Wallis began looking at the design of aircraft that could drop heavy bombs. The adapted Avro Lancaster was able to drop two bombs developed by Wallis, the 'Tallboy' designed in used to sink the German battleship 'Tirpitz' and the 'Grand Slam' the following year.

Both were used against heavily fortified German targets. After the war, Wallis led aeronautical research and development at the British Aircraft Corporation until He became a fellow of the Royal Society in and was knighted in He died on 20 October