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I'm trying to find out what the plane on the right is. The person in the photo is of course Sir Barnes Wallis, one of Britain's most famous airship designers. He's standing in front of paintings of two of his ships, but more importantly, what is the wild looking thing in front of him?
The photo dates from the 1950s. The book it's from (“Sky Sailors”) only mentions the paintings behind him, and doesn't even say anything about the model, so I assume they must have no idea either. It has external airbreathing engine pods, so I don't believe that it's a spaceship, although it could be a design for a British X-plane of some kind?
I'd be so excited though if that was a radical design for a lighter-than-air ship…?
Update: Thanks to Shamus Greenman for letting me know that it's a variable geometry aircraft (ie. plane, not blimp) called the Swallow (more, more).
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