Dennistoun Burney

Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, Bt
With Streamline Cars Ltd's Burney car, c. 1930[1]
Born	28 December 1888
Died	11 November 1968 (aged 79) Bermuda[2]
Known for	Aeronautical engineer Member of Parliament Businessman
Relatives	Cecil Burney (father)

Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, 2nd Baronet (28 December 1888 – 11 November 1968, Bermuda) was an English aeronautical engineer, private inventor and Conservative Party politician.^[3]

Early military career

Burney, often called Dennis Burney, was the son of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cecil Burney Bt. He was given a naval education, starting his training at HMS Britannia in 1903, and joining the battleship Exmouth as a midshipman in early 1905. In 1909 he was posted to the destroyer HMS Crusader, which was being used for experimental anti-submarine work at the time.^[3]

In 1911, he came up with a novel seaplane design using a hydrofoil undercarriage. Further development was carried out by the Bristol and Colonial Aeroplane Company and two prototype designs, the X.2 and X.3, were produced, but were not successful.^[4]

On the outbreak of World War I, Burney was given command of the destroyer HMS Velox, but shortly afterwards joined the research establishment at HMS Vernon. Here he developed the paravane, an anti-mine device, for which he took out a number of patents in 1916. These were to earn him around £350,000 during the course of the war through their use by foreign merchant fleets. In 1920 Burney retired from the navy with the rank of lieutenant-commander, and was promoted on the retired list to commander.^[3]

Vickers and parliament

He then became a consultant with Vickers and came up with a plan for civil airship development which was to be carried out by Vickers with support from the Government. This evolved into the Imperial Airship Scheme which was to result in the R100 and R101 airships: Burney became managing director of the specially formed subsidiary of Vickers that built the R100 airship, where his design team, headed by Barnes Wallis, included Nevil Shute, later to become famous as a novelist.

In 1929, he published a book called The World, the Air and the Future.^[5]

His private interests led him to set up a company Streamline Cars Ltd to build technically advanced aerodynamic rear-engined cars^[1] from 1930–1934: this was taken up by Crossley Motors.

Burney was Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge from 1922 until he retired in 1929.

World War II

In 1939, he was again joined by Nevil Shute in the development of an early air-launched gliding torpedo, the Toraplane, and the Doravane glide bomb. Despite much work and many trials the Toraplane could not be launched with repeatable accuracy and was finally abandoned in 1942. Among other military weapons, he was the inventor of the High Explosive Squash Head (HESH) shell and a British recoilless rifle, the "Burney gun". He demonstrated the advantages of the latter by constructing a recoilless shotgun with a 1 inch bore which he was able to shoot with no discomfort from the recoil. During World War II, he led development of a recoilless weapon for the British Army which entered service as Ordnance, RCL, 3.45 in but too late to see service during the war.

Personal life

He succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1929 and was in turn succeeded by his only child.

References

1. "Streamline Cars Ltd – The Burney Car". The Old Motor. 14 January 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
2. Flight International p802 21 November 1968
3. Oxford Dictionry of National Biography Oxford: OUP.
4. Barnes, C.H. Bristol Aircraft Since 1910 London: Putnam, 1988 pp. 86-90
5. Book Reviews Flight 1929

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Dennistoun Burney