Wallis WA-116 Agile

WA-116 Agile
Little Nellie, pictured with its creator Ken Wallis in the cockpit.
Role	Single-seat autogyro
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Wallis Autogyros Limited
Designer	Ken Wallis
First flight	2 August 1961
Number built	10+

The Wallis WA-116 Agile is a British autogyro developed in the early 1960s by former Royal Air Force Wing Commander Ken Wallis. The aircraft was produced in a number of variants, one of which, nicknamed Little Nellie, was flown in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

Wing Commander Ken Wallis, a former RAF pilot, developed a number of improvements to the autogyro design, including the offset gimbal rotor head which gives the autogyro hands-off stability. Wallis' first prototype autogyro, registered G-ARRT, was first flown on 2 August 1961.

In 1962, five WA-116s were built by Beagle Aircraft at Shoreham, three of which were for evaluation by the British Army Air Corps. In 1966, one of the Beagle-built WA-116s, registered G-ARZB, was modified for use in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Little Nellie was named after Nellie Wallace. Few Wallis autogyros have been operated privately, with nearly all of them being used for research and demonstration flying by Wallis himself.

Data from British Civil Aircraft since 1919 – Volume 3

General characteristics

Performance

58 lb fuel, power/wt 7.651b/hp

...
Wikipedia