Plaque

Sir Barnes Wallis - Harmondsworth

Erection date: 26/9/2013

Inscription

Sir Barnes Neville Wallis CBE, FRS, RDI, FRAeS 1887 - 1979.
Designer of R100 airship, geodetic construction, Upkeep, Highball, Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs. Pioneer of swing-wing and tailless aircraft and hypersonic flight.
Hillingdon London

We initially thought that Upkeep, Highball, Tallboy and Grand Slam were all versions of the bouncing bomb used in the Dambusters raid. But Mike Coleman has gone into things more deeply - he tells us that Tallboy and Grand Slam were spin-stabilised, deep-penetration, "earthquake" bombs dropped from altitude.

Site: Sir Barnes Wallis - Harmondsworth (2 memorials)

UB7, Moor Lane

This marks the site where Wallis's water-skipping explosives were tested on models at the Road Research Laboratories. Tom Long sent us this 1946 map which shows the Road Research Lab buildings a little to the south, on the Colnbrook By-pass, to the east of the 4 houses that are still there, surprisingly since Heathrow airport wiped out most of what's shown on this map.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Sir Barnes Wallis - Harmondsworth

Subjects commemorated i

Sir Barnes Wallis

Designer and engineer. Born Barnes Neville Wallis in Ripley, Derbyshire. He w...

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R100 Airship

In full: His Majesty's Airship R100.  It was a privately designed British air...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Sir Barnes Wallis - Harmondsworth

Created by i

London Borough of Hillingdon

The borough was formed in 1965 from the Municipal Borough of Uxbridge, Hayes ...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Sir Barnes Wallis - Harmondsworth

Also at this site i

Road Research Laboratory

Road Research Laboratory

{By an image of a Lancaster Bomber:} Tests conducted by the Road Research Lab...

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