Wallis WA-116 Agile explained

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. Little Nellie and another sixteen of his autogyros are currently on static display with his second cousin at Wallis & Son Land Rover showrooms in Barton, Cambs.

Design and development

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.^[1] Wallis' first prototype autogyro, registered G-ARRT, was first flown on 2 August 1961.^[2]

Operational history

In 1962, five WA-116s were built by Beagle Aircraft at Shoreham, three of which were for evaluation by the British Army Air Corps. Wallis flew one of these aircraft, XR942, at that year's Farnborough Air Show.

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 legendary music hall performer Nellie Wallace.^[3]

Few Wallis autogyros have been operated privately, with nearly all of them being used for research and demonstration flying by Wallis himself.^[4] Wallis withdrew all his autogyros from use by anyone other than himself, after the crash of WA-117 G-AXAR at the 1970 Farnborough Air Show.^[5]

Operators

Army Air Corps

Variants

WA-116 Agile

Prototype autogyro powered by a Wallis-McCulloch 4318A engine.^[6]

WA-116-T

Two-seat variant, one built.

WA-117 Venom

Variant powered by a 1000NaN0 Continental O-200-B engine.

WA-118 Meteorite

Variant powered by a 1200NaN0 Wallis-modified Meteor Alfa supercharged two-stroke engine.^[7]

WA-119

Variant powered by a 40 hp water-cooled 990 cc Hillman Imp engine.

WA-121

Streamlined variant for high-altitude research with a Wallis-McCulloch 4318A engine; a single WA-121 was built in 1972.

References

Bibliography

Apostolo, Giorgio (1984). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Helicopters. New York: Bonanza Books. .
Book: Jackson . Aubrey J. . British civil aircraft, 1919-1972 Volume III . 1988 . Putnam . London . 0851778186 . 2nd., repr. with corrections . 329.

Notes and References

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1966/1966%20-%200896.html "The Wallis Autogyros."
Jackson (1974). p. 329.
Web site: 2016-10-17 . Focus Of The Week: Little Nellie . 2024-02-19 . James Bond 007 . en-US.
Apostolo (1984). p. 101.
Web site: ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 19511 . Aviation Safety Network . 18 July 2020.
Note, the McCulloch 4318A is a four-cylinder, horizontally-opposed two-stroke engine originally intended for limited-life drone applications.
Web site: Archived copy . 14 September 2015 . 19 April 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160419014911/https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1966/1966%20-%201560.PDF . dead .