Geodetic airframe
Videos
Page
A geodetic airframe is a type of construction for the airframes of aircraft developed by British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis in the 1930s. Earlier, it was used by Prof. Schütte for the Schütte Lanz Airship SL 1 in 1909. It makes use of a space frame formed from a spirally crossing basket-weave of load-bearing members. The principle is that two geodesic arcs can be drawn to intersect on a curving surface in a manner that the torsional load on each cancels out that on the other.
A section of the rear fuselage from a Vickers Warwick showing the geodetic construction in duralumin. On exhibit at the Armstrong & Aviation Museum at Bamburgh Castle.
Barnes Wallis
Videos
Page
Sir Barnes Neville Wallis was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II.
Wallis as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service
R100 airship
The Möhne Dam, breached by bouncing bombs
Valentin U-boat pen, with its roof of 4.5 metres of reinforced concrete blown open by a Grand Slam bomb