Hugh Hunt

Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb

Ian Duncan

Jim Carter, Hugh Hunt

In 1939, visionary aircraft designer Barnes Wallis designed a very special bomb that would bounce across water and destroy German dams. The raid in 1943 was a success and a 1950s feature film carried the the Dambusters story into British legend. The science behind the bouncing bomb is highly complex, and many of Barnes Wallis' vital working calculations have been lost. Now, Cambridge engineer Dr Hugh Hunt, is going to attempt to solve the scientific puzzle of exactly how Wallis did it. Starting from scratch, he will rediscover the brilliance of Wallis's achievement when he tries to hit a dam with a bouncing bomb. It is the first time this has been attempted since the war.