Wallis, Sir Barnes

Wallis, Sir Barnes (Neville)

(born Sept. 26, 1887, Ripley, Derbyshire, Eng.—died Oct. 30, 1979, Leatherhead, Surrey) British aeronautical designer and military engineer. He invented the innovative “dambuster” bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force to destroy the Möhne and Eder dams in Germany's industrial Ruhr area, producing heavy floods that slowed industrial production. He also invented the 12,000-lb (5,400 kg) “Tallboy” and the 22,000-lb (10,000 kg) “Grand Slam” bombs and was responsible for the bombs that destroyed the German warship Tirpitz, V-rocket sites, and much of Germany's railway system. In 1971 he designed an aircraft that could fly five times the speed of sound.