Barnes Wallis and his bouncing bomb
By Bill McNaught 

Wallis is best known for his bouncing bomb used to destroy German dams in WW2, but in his early years he was a naval architect before moving on to become one of the country’s leading airship designers. Reluctantly he transitioned to design aircraft, following the demise of airships, and perhaps his most famous design was the Wellington bomber. He studied bomb design and as well as the dams bomb, he designed the two large largest bombs used during WW2, the Tallboy and the Grand Slam. In his later years he became convinced that future passenger aircraft should be supersonic and one of his innovative designs was the swing-wing concept.