Commander Ken Wallis, known the world over to James Bond fans
as the inventor and pilot of the auto-gyro seen in the 1967 adventure "You
Only Live Twice" as Little
Nellie, has died at the age of
97.
Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis MBE, DEng (hc), CEng,
FRAeS, FSETP, PhD (hc), RAF (Ret'd), was a leading exponent on
autogyros and has held, and in some
cases still holds, 34 records
related to them.
MI6
Interview with Commander Ken Wallis
Above: Commander Ken Wallis
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Born on 26th April 1916 ain Ely, Cambridgeshire,
Wallis' interest in mechanics began at age 11 when he started
to build his own
motorcycle. At age 20, after witnessing a demonstration by Henri
Mignet of his 'Flying Flea' aircraft, and armed with Mignet's
book, Wallis started to build his own but later abandoned the
project due to a spate of deaths and bad publicity about the
craft.
After his first solo flight in 1937, his interests also turned
to power boating, and he was active in the sport up until 1957
when he won the 90km long Missouri Marathon event.
As the world turned towards world war again,
Wallis tried to enlist in the RAF but was rejected due to a defect
in his right
eye. Unperturbed, he obtained a private flying license after
his GP signed off on the documents, and earned his A License
for dual and solo flying in a record 12 hours. After another
unsuccessful attempt to join the RAF's new Short Service Commission
Scheme in 1938, but was called up by RAF Uxbridge a year later
and got through the eye test. "I did the first line with
my good eye then they covered it up and asked me to read the
bottom line with my bad eye, without them realising I just turned
my head slightly so I could again see with my good eye - I
passed it with Above Average Eye Sight," Wallis recalled
recently.
During World War II, Wallis started with Westland Lysander patrols
and was then transferred to RAF Bomber Command, flying Wellingtons
near Grimsby. He went on to serve in Italy and on secondment
to US Strategic Air Command where he flew the Convair B-36. Wallis
retired from the RAF in 1964, having spent the post-war years
involved in R&D.
But it is his work as inventor and pilot of autogyros for which
Wallis is best known to Bond fans around the world. He developed
the craft for "reconnaissance, research & development,
surveillance and military purposes" but was weary of other
building their own kits from plans (after his experience with
the 'Flying Flea'), insisting that although the design is simple,
they had to be built to proper standard. Wallis' signature contribution
his autogyro was the offset gimbal rotor head. Wallis produced
the craft under the company Wallis Autogyros Ltd run by his cousin
in Cambridge.
Q-Branch's 'Little Nellie' was in fact model
WA-116 from Wallis' stable of autogyros. For the film, Little
Nellie was kitted out
with a range of armourments by MI6's Q-Branch, so that Bond could
survey the volcanic islands of Japan in safety. She was accompanied
by her "dad", Q himself, who demonstrated some of the
modifications to 007. Such modifications included twin forward-facing
machine guns, two 1.75" rockets, smaller heat seeking missiles
and aerial mines. Nellie is equipped with short-range radio so
that the pilot can communicate with her "dad" at all
times, and a camera broadcasts a pilot's view so that he can
better
be aided by the ground-staff. She is transported to Japan in
several packing cases and assembled by able bodies provided by
the Japanese secret service - overseen by Q of course.
Whilst the first unit was completing scenes at Kagoshima Seaport
and Kobe Docks (foot chase), Himeji Castle (ninja training school)
and the Hotel New Otani in Chiyoda-Ku (Osato Chemicals exteriors),
Commander Ken Wallis began filming with Little Nellie on location
in Japan. The scenes were initially shot in Miyazaki, first with
takes of the gyrocopter, with more than 85 take-offs, 5 hours
of flight and Wallis nearly crashing onto the camera several
times The long stunt sequence was under the supervision of second
unit director Peter Hunt and aerial cameraman Johnny Jordan,
who choreographed the fight between Little Nellie and her attackers.
Jordan suffered a terrible accident when a Hillier flew too close
and clipped his Alouette’s underside skis with its rotors.
He was immediately rushed to a hospital in nearby Ebino where
surgeons struggled to save his almost-severed foot. Three months
later in London, Jordan’s leg had to be amputated. With
only establishing shots in the can and the team demoralized,
the second unit headed back to London and rescheduled the aerial
battle for December in Torremolinos, Spain, with a new French
stunt crew and replacement cameraman Tony Brown whilst Wallis
resumed flights with Little Nellie to complete the sequence.
Along with 007 duty, Wallis provided camera footage from onboard
his autogyro whilst searching for the Loch Ness Monster in
1970, the hunt for Lord Lucan in 1964, and shot aerial footage
for Into The Wind between 2006 and 2009 for the documentary's
director Steven Hatton.
Wallis was awarded an MBE in 1996, and a long
over-due campaign medal for his 28 bomber missions over Germany during WWII in
July 2013. Last October, he was given a lifetime
contribution to aerospace award by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.
He was also the President of the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation
Museum, and Patron of the Wolf Preservation Foundation.
Commander Ken Wallis died aged 97 on Sunday 1st September 2013
in the village of Reymerston in Norfolk, England. His daughter
Vicky said her father passed away after "a long and successful
life doing what he wanted".
"Some
of the most exciting moments you don’t
see in the film - taking off and landing on a cliff
edge. There was hardly any
flat area, it was all rugged - when you braked,
the aircraft would slide and slither. I did 7 take-offs
and landings in one day. I would fly up to four or five
thousand feet, take the shoots and comeback down again,
each time thinking: ‘I’ve still got Little
Nellie’. Then they would say there was a hair in
number two camera can you do it again! But that’s
filmmaking." - Commander Ken Wallis talking to
MI6
Confidential magazine in issue #6.
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