Farewell to another aviation gentleman

The real world of aviation has recently lost another of its legendary members, with the passing of Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis MBE DSO CEng FRAeS PhD RAF(retd) on Sunday 1st September 2013, at the age of 97.

Ken Wallis may not be immediately familiar to many, but the autogyro aircraft that bear his name took him to hold a total of 34 World Records – although he is still probably most famous outside the UK as the double of fictional British agent James Bond, flying an autogyro of his own design, dubbed “Little Nellie”, in the film You Only Live Twice.

In addition to being a major part of Wallis Autogyro Limited, Ken was the President of the Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum. The official site of Wallis Autogyros has a biography by Ian Hancock, which can be found here.