Biography

Barnes Wallis was born on September 26, 1887 in Ripley, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was married to Molly Bloxam. He died on October 30, 1979 in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, UK.

He had four children, Barnes, Mary Stopes-Roe, Elizabeth and Christopher.

After the war, he led aeronautical research and development at the British Aircraft Corporation. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1954, and was knighted in 1968.

He developed the "bouncing bomb" used by the RAF's Dambusters in WWII -- a drum-shaped, rotating device that would bounce over water, roll down a dam's wall and explode at its base.

There is a natural opposition among men to anything they have not thought of themselves.

You know, there's such a very thin dividing line between inspiration and obsession that sometimes it's very hard to decide which side we're really on.