The Dullard Drop Punt
Dear reader, once again, as snippet from the scintillating saga of Australian manufacturing and deerring do. In this instalment we thrill to the excitement of an era when innovation and technical improvisation were at the absolute forefront of thinking. Read on….
Perhaps one of the most innovative aircraft to see service in any theatre the ‘Drop Punt’ was ingeniously adapted from the ‘Handley Page Hangover’ and developed by the Dullard Company (South Australia.) into a potential war winning weapon.
Barnes Wallis. The famous inventor at work. Obsessed with cracking tough nuts.
Ultimately, this aircraft challenged assumptions then prevalent at the time, and resolved once and for all the dilemma facing round bomb versus oval bomb. And just in time, for Australia, imperiled by the Japanese onslaught in the Pacific required just this type of aircraft to crack some tough nuts.
Popular hero Walter Spigot (DSM) demonstrates the drop punt and torpedo. Barnes Wallis in background on left.
It all happened in England when the famous Barnes Wallis was invited to an RAF RAAF intra services football match, (rugby) in which he first witnessed the drop kick. A Victorian sergeant Walter Spigot DSM demonstrated this unorthodox kick in winning the match. Spellbound Barnes Wallis scribbled some notes upon the scorecard and then Spigot described to the famous inventor how such a kick provided both accuracy, and range beyond the assembled scrum. Over the next few days Spigot demonstrated to Barnes Wallis the drop punt, the torpedo and the straight banana. Soon thereafter Wallis was to be seen hand passing, bouncing and kicking a Sherrin around the Airborne forces experimental establishment. And so began an obsession with utilising this unique delivery system into a war winning weapon. Wallis was impressed and set about devising a mechanical spinner that could activate both the ‘torpedo’ and the ‘drop punt’.
What fascinated Wallis was rather than the conventional high approach with the conventional bomb site, or the dive bombing technique favoured by the infamous Ju 87 Stuka, the drop punt offered a low level approach and the ‘kick” provided an opportunity for warhead delivery well in advance of the enemy defense system. Recent experience with the famous 617 ‘Dambusters’ squadron RAF had proved telling. Over a third of the raiders succumbing to ack ack and fighter defences en route, during and after the raid, and in the words of commander Mick Martin, questioning the round ball (the famous bouncing bomb) approach, ‘a long dribble is allright for attack when the goal is undefended, but a disaster into anything other than a open goal’. Resolutely Wallis determined a ‘drop punt’ approach would be both more accurate and improve the chances of getting away safely’.
The distinctive nose section of the Dullard. This photograph depicts ” V for Vulture”. Not a mis-spelling but as indicated a crafty subterfuge to confuse the enemy. Also in this series ‘K for Kultur” and ” S for Sheila”.
In March, Wallis had a prototype, with a rather ingenious undercarriage partially modified from a Massey Harris hay bale elevator, a cricket ball bowling machine and a qualcast rotary mower. Only one insurmountable problem remained; how to deliver the cargo and achieve exactly the right height, distance and speed for safe delivery? It so happened that before another sortie. Comdr Martin was on leave at the famous Chipperfield’s Circus spellbound to the allure of the exotic contortionist ‘Myra Myrna the stunning squirmer’ perform the incredible ‘Song of the Pink Flamingo’. Rapturously he watched her leap into the air, clutch a bungee between her teeth, and then with one convulsive kick and the impetus of a hastily lit roman candle attached to her tap shoes, launched in a perfect parabolic arc across the entire length of the arena into an enormous basket of fluffy balls.
In one stroke Wallis had it! A bungey of predetermined length, a bouncing board, and rockets attached to the oval shaped bomb to achieve the designated target.
The hybrid and intensely complex release “kicker” mechanism as adapted from a Qualcast and re-engineered by Barnes Wallis for incorporation into the Drop Punt.
Back in Australia, Galvanised by this discovery The Dullard Aircraft Company constructed and adapted a Lancaster squadron with the necessary launching apparatus. Thinking laterally, after numerous failures with metallic and alloy bomb casings they had the bomb itself encased in an outer covering of thick buffalo hide, a proven and effective way of ensuring the bomb itself had the right degree of “bounce” and would not explode on impact with the “kicker”.
Now to find a target. Word had got out that the Japanese had converted a rocky volcanic island, (‘Ninjas Nut’) into a submarine base, and only this new war winning weapon could break this tough nut. The adapted Lancaster’s were made ready and launched, their precious cargo primed and ready. Approaching the target the aircraft gained height and prepared to attack. When at the correct range they unleashed their deadly cargoes and veered away anticipate the coming explosion. Nothing happened. The subsequent enquiries revealed that the increased humidity of the tropics had affected the leather covering of the bomb to such an extent they were water logged and bulged. Furthermore the rocket propulsion system had become damp and failed to ignite. Those that did, failed to reach the required trajectory and plopped ignominiously into the sea and then primed by hydrostatic fuses exploded, alerting the Japanese. Caught in the open by the defending fighters they were annihilated.
Prophetically, the squadron archive records the engagement as the ‘battle of the bulging balls’. With the sardonic entry;
‘The Dullard Drop Punt’. ‘Didn’t’
Dullard Drop Punt Specifications
Crew: 6.
Range: 1200 miles at cruising speed
Max Speed; 230 mph
Ceiling: 25,000 feet
Powerplant: Four Rolls Royce Merlin.
Armament 8 x .303 in 3x Boulton Paul turret.
1 x 2000 lb Mk. 1 Barnes Wallis Drop Punt bomb.
1 X Qualcast Royale.
Operators RAAF