Many would know Sir Barnes from his Operation Chastise work with the Royal Air Force 617 Sqn in WWII which has been more widely known as the "Dambusters" raid of the Ruhr Valley.

A genius of an Engineer, with much more to his credibility than the bouncing bomb, or indeed the Operation Crossbow bunker busting / earthquake bombs critical to aiding the defeat of the V1/V2 sites and the A4 Site Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde and many other targets - it is his aviation work with his considerably safer geodetic frame design for aircraft which was instrumental to be able to create battle- and fatige-tollerant aircraft ever since. His work was also a world first on the swing wing aircraft design for "Wild Goose" and "Swallow" along with other firsts in hypersonic aircraft designs.

He was by the end of WWII the head of research and development of Vickers-Armstrong which makes him a British Engineer of acknowledgement and many of our freedoms and the security we enjoy today can be directly attributed back to his pioneering work.

It was his determination and at his great personal expense that he achieved these results. His strident passion to deliver what he knew was a design that was so difficult to deliver, yet would be ground-breaking once achieved. He knew it was often more about requiring many hearts and minds to alter their normal approach and doctrine. He achieved many ground-breaking engineering designs against all the odds and delivered a profound result that this award will so be founded.

It will be awarded every two years and eligibility will initially be limited to our own Company. The award will be made at a formal event and take the form of a personal etched quartz glass crystal and a golf ball, and we will see if we can acquire a lithograph of his diary design of the aircraft geodetic frame design. In addition a cash award of £25,000 will go with the award.

The criteria for the 2017 award will be either as an individual or a team:

To have achieved through personal or team effort a significant and lasting change through strident, persistent [not maverick], technological and scientific innovation that alters the security and safety of the United Kingdom thereafter the delivery of such work.

Our Bursaries, Scholarships & Awards are a key part of our work to further science and engineering in the United Kingdom for all sectors not just our area of Defence and Law Enforcement.