Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney
British areonautical engineer and private inventor.
Born	December 28, 1888
Died	November 11, 1968 Bermuda

Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, was a British aeronautical engineer and private inventor. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 3 days remaining. ... 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

Brief outline

Date of Birth: 28 December 1888 Date of death: 11 November 1968 at the age of 79 in Bermuda 2nd Baronet, on death of his father, former Admiral of the Fleet Cecil Burney in 1929 Member of Parliament for Uxbridge 1922-1929 A baronet (traditional abbreviation Bart, modern abbreviation Bt) is the holder of a title, similar to a knighthood except that it is hereditary, known as a baronetcy. ... Admiral of the Fleet is a supreme naval position that has existed both in historical navies and several modern day navies of the 21st century. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Uxbridge is a place in the London Borough of Hillingdon in west London. ...

Activities

Sir Dennis Burney was managing director of the private firm that built the R100 airship, where he was assisted by Nevil Shute, later to become famous as a writer. The R100 was an airship, the successful private counterpart to the British government R101 project, in a competition designed to highlight the so-called benefits of state controlled Big Science projects (cf Concorde ) Constructed at the former RNAS Station at Howden in Yorkshire, the Vickers-built competitor flew to Cardington... Nevil Shute (London, January 17, 1899 - Melbourne, January 12, 1960) (full name Nevil Shute Norway) was one of the most popular novelists of the mid-20th century. ...

Burney invented the highly succesful Paravane during World War One a device used for cutting cables from mines. In 1939 he was again joined by Nevil Shute in the development of an early air-launched gliding torpedo, the Toraplane, and the gliding bomb, Doravane. Despite much work and many trials the Toraplane could not be launched with repeatable accuracy and the Toraplane was finally abandoned in 1942. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

His private interests led him to set up a company Streamline Cars Ltd to build technically advanced aerodynamic rear-engineed cars from 1930 - 1934, that were taken up by Crossley Motors. This article needs to be wikified. ... Crossley Motors, based in Manchester, England, produced approximately 19,000 high quality cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958 and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to 1945. ...

Among other military weapons, he was the inventor of the squash-head shell (HESH) shell and the British developer of the recoilless rifle which were known as Burney guns. He demonstrated the advantages of the latter by constructing a recoiless shotgun with a 1 inch bore which he was able to shoot with no discomfort from the recoil, High explosive squash head, also known as HESH or HEP (in US usage, for high-explosive, plastic), rounds are a type of anti-tank explosive. ... M67 recoilless rifle The first effective recoilless rifles (RCL) were developed during World War II as a lightweight form of anti-tank weaponry. ...

During the war he led development of what become in offical terms, Ordnance, RCL, 3.45 in. A British recoiless weapon, designed by Sir Dennis Burney during the Second World War. ...

His only child, succeeded to the Baronetcy

Awards

• Baronetcy: 5 Jun 1929

see also

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