Autograph Letter Signed ('Barnes Wallis') from the inventor of the 'bouncing bomb' used in the 'Dambusters' Raid, Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, to [Arthur] Bourne, with press photographs of Wallis and of his'swing-wing' Swallow aircraft, and cutting.

The four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter to 'Mr. Bourne': 1p., 8vo. Replying to a letter from Bourne, he states that he will be 'very pleased to serve on the proposed "advisory board", provided that no financial liabiltiy is thereby incurred by me, & that no great amount of travelling is involved.' He concludes with the news that he is 'still busy on a hypersonic transport aircraft especially designed to take "containers".' The two photographs are both in black and white. The first photograph (22 x 16.5 cm) is of a smiling Wallis, in old age, looking into the camera in evening dress and black bow tie. It carries on the reverse the stamp of the Universal Pictorial Press and Agency Ltd, London. The second photograph (21.5 x 26 cm) is of the 'swing-wing' Swallow in flight over countryside. The newspaper cutting, from the Newcastle Herald (New South Wales), 8 August 1969, is of an article by Tony Osman titled 'Barnes Wallis - man of extraordinary ideas'. It features photographs of Wallis, the R100 airship, and off the Swallow. From the papers of the science journalist Arthur Bourne.