Farewell Little Nellie's real father

[CJGibson]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10286869/Wing-Commander-Kenneth-Wallis.html

Another character of the aerospace world is gone.

Chris

 

[Mike Pryce]

Very sad news. Condolences to his family.

He was indeed a character, of both my childhood and later years. A few years ago I gave a talk to the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust at Bristol. I asked about what was the best way to get there, train or car. I was told that the previous speaker had been Wg Cdr Wallis, and he had flown in by autogyro! A tough act to follow, in every sense.

RIP.

 

[Mat Parry]

I asked about what was the best way to get there, train or car. I was told that the previous speaker had been Wg Cdr Wallis, and he had flown in by autogyro! A tough act to follow, in every sense.

RIP.

Now that is style!

Superb!! a life that was most definately NOT wasted

 

[Grey Havoc]

I asked about what was the best way to get there, train or car. I was told that the previous speaker had been Wg Cdr Wallis, and he had flown in by autogyro! A tough act to follow, in every sense.

RIP.

Now that is style!

Superb!! a life that was most definately NOT wasted

Indeed!

To his great regret Wallis never found a commercial manufacturer for his autogyros, although he was delighted when the James Bond film producer Cubby Broccoli recognised its dramatic potential: “I was asked to demonstrate it to him at Pinewood Studios, taking off on the back lot along a short strip of concrete towards a pile of railway sleepers — the basis of a 'volcano’. I disappeared in a cloud of dust and everyone waited for me to crash... but my autogyro climbed away safely. Broccoli immediately said, 'Get it to Japan in six weeks.’”

Wallis and his autogyro, “Little Nellie”, were duly dispatched to the set of You Only Live Twice, where Wallis stood in for Sean Connery in a famous sequence in which “Bond”, in a rocket-firing autogyro, fights baddies in orthodox helicopters, zipping around an active volcano — while Connery “sat in a replica in Pinewood with a fan ruffling his shirt and pretended to be flying”.

“Broccoli told me to shave off my handlebar moustache so I could double for Sean Connery, which was a bit of a shock,” Wallis recalled. “The Japanese pilot of the camera helicopter had trained as a kamikaze, which caused me a little concern, but in fact he was a very nice chap... There was no mention of me in the credits, which was a mistake, obviously. But the tours in America and Australia were great fun.”

 

[shedofdread]

A sad loss but an impressively full 97 years.