The High Flyer Who Gave

30 FEATURE www.EDP24.co.uk/news Eastern Daily Press, Tuesday, October 23, 2012 The high flyer who gave 007 He was Sean Connery’s James Bond Wing commander Ken Wallis played a key role in stunt double, helped search for Lord Lucan and the Loch Ness Monster creating one of the most famous James Bond and created what he claims is the world’s smallest working pistol. movie action sequences and his own life has But when wing commander Ken Wallis steps on stage at an award been almost as action-packed as 007’s, writes ceremony at London’s Guildhall today, it will be his 75 years of MARTIN GEORGE “exceptional service and devotion to aviation” being honoured. He was born into a family of aviation pioneers in Ely in 1916 – his father and uncle constructed the Wallbro Monoplane in 1910 – and now at the age of 96 he is considering attempting his 35th world record for autogyros from his home in Reymerston Hall, near Dereham. Wing cdr Wallis was born during the first world war and his lifelong interest in flight was sparked by the air shows his father took him to as a child. IT’S IN THE GENES: Ken Wallis’ flying family from 1910. Poor sight in one eye threatened to ground him, but he gained his private pilot’s licence in 1937 without a sight test and was summoned to RAF Uxbridge at the outbreak of war and started flying Lysanders with 268 Squadron after cheating in an eye test. He survived mid-air explosions and crash landings during service over northern Europe and Italy People say it must have been fun to ﬁlm, but it was 85 ﬂights and 46 hours in the air to make seven minutes on screen Wing cmr Ken Wallis before transferring to armament research and development, where he developed warheads and cameras for aerial photography. He flew nuclear-armed B36s during a posting with American Strategic Air Command in 1956-58 – “It was creepy; it was always a relief not to get the order to use the bomb” – but it was an encounter with the Bensen B7 Gyroglider which started his LICENSED TO THRILL: Below, a diagram of Little Nellie, the Wallis association with the machines that Autogyro of 007 fame, and above, some of the props used in the film. made him famous. Using “back of the envelope” calculations he adapted and improved the design, forming his autogyro company after leaving the RAF in 1964. They proved particularly useful for but take the camera apart and reload flights and 46 hours in the air to aerial photography, whether it. As a camera platform it is make seven minutes on screen.” scanning the Sussex Downs absolutely superb.” He was surprised to find his during the hunt for Lord Ironically, he was working autogyro referred to as Little Nellie Lucan, taking part in a 1970 on an Italian Bond spoof in when he arrived for filming in Japan, investigation of Loch Ness, Brazil when he was asked until he remembered it was a or searching for murder to pilot Sean Connery’s military nickname derived from victims’ burial sites. autogyro for the helicopter music hall star Nellie Wallace and Wing cdr Wallis said: “It’s battle scene in You Only used for anyone with a similar- completely stable. In the Live Twice in 1966. sounding surname. roughest air it rides hands He had never seen a Bond He only met Connery, (pictured and feet off. film before. He said: “I left), briefly when he filmed a “If you are flying think it was a briefing with Q in the autogyro, and a helicopter you good film. although he toured America, have to fly it all People say Germany and Australia to promote the time, but in it must the film, his name did not appear in an autogyro have been its credits. you not only fun to Between 1968 and 2002 wing cdr take hand- film but Wallis set 34 world records for the held it was autogyro, including a six hour, 25- photos, 85 minute flight covering the length of Eastern Daily Press, Tuesday, October 23, 2012 www.EDP24.co.uk/news FEATURE 31 REX HANCY IN THE COUNTRYSIDE his wildest lady ever Pictures: MATTHEW USHER Taverham [email protected] Sluggish sight that heralds the arrival of autumn Autumn is a time of constant decisions in our garden. How much dead and dying material to clear away and how much to leave is ever on my mind. When I was able to do three days’ work in two I could safely leave much until the spring. Now I am more of one day’s work taking three so the options have become all the more complicated. Why not carry on and ‘tidy’ everything in sight? The answer is that we have no idea what is tucked away inside the decaying vegetation. Some of those occupants may of course be undesirable occupants, waiting to irritate us next season. Others may just as easily be our gardening friends and we certainly need as many of them as possible. We can ill afford to lose them by being over-zealous just now. Others may be neutral, neither harmful nor helpful yet so pleasing to see they lift the spirits when sighted. We had such a case last week when certain pots of flowering plants did need haircuts as it were before removal to winter quarters. The debris on the path was being swept to one side when a colourful creature flew rather lazily out of the pile and landed on a mossy patch no more than a yard away. I would expect most creatures when disturbed in such a way to speed off to safe cover well out of our reach. This one sat, wings spread, quite motionless and in full view. The Herald SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION: Autogyro expert Ken Wallis, who is receiving an award from the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators this week. moth, for so it was, has such a mixture of hues, which together with the ragged outline of its wings, could easily break the outline sufficiently to make the moth difficult to pick out in certain contexts. Spread out against the mossy green gave no camouflage at all. The Herald is generally regarded as a sluggish creature, feeding on the same group of flowers in a moderately small area. This seems hardly the kind of behaviour which would guarantee survival in any large numbers in difficult times. However, I understand numbers of individuals huddle together to see out the winter. Survivors soon produce a spring generation which then ensures a second brood to emerge in autumn. The caterpillars feed happily on all sorts of willows and poplars so food should not be in short supply. We are left wondering just where our moth spent the larval stage. There are willows and poplars in the mid distance which could have harboured any number. Perhaps LOOK NO HANDS: Wing cdr Ken Wallis flying Little Nellie, the autogyro our sluggish adult hitched a ride on a immortalised in the Bond film You Only Live Twice. favourable breeze to bring it over to us. the UK in 1975, and now he is day. Doing the flight is the easy bit, WHERE TO JOIN limbering up to break his own but getting people in the right place N Norfolk Wildlife Trust: 01603 625540 207.7kph record over 3km. at the right time is rather more N Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ He said: “I often think that at my difficult.” Society: 01986 894277 age I really shouldn’t fly any more, This week wing cdr Wallis will N RSPB (East Anglia): 01603 661662 but I like to have a reason. I ought to receive the Guild of Air Pilots and N Norfolk Ornithologists’ Association: be thinking seriously about this Air Navigators’ Award of Honour 01485 525406 world record again, but I don’t know from Admiral Sir George Zambellas, N British Trust for Ornithology: if I will do it. fleet commander and deputy chief 01842 750050 “You have got to get the paperwork of the naval staff. N British Dragonfly Society: and official time keepers and a good N [email protected] 0300 060 2338.

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