Wallis was born in Derbyshire, England, and educated at Christ's Hospital school. He began his career building ships, but soon left to join the Vickers Company, which designed many British airplanes during the First World War.

At Vickers Wallis first worked on rigid airships, whose form later inspired his lattice-like geodetic structures for aircraft. When the airship program was temporarily halted by World War I in 1915, Wallis joined the Artists' Rifles, an army regiment consisting of artists and designers. After the war, he returned to head Vickers newly reinstated airship program. He also returned to school in 1920, earning his engineering degree only four months later. Wallis designed several superior airships during this period, including the R80 and the R100. However, the crash of a separately designed sister ship effectively ended airship manufacture at Vickers and ultimately in England.

Wallis was eventually transferred to the company's airplane works in...