Wallis WA-116 Agile


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.

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

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 flying 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. Few Wallis autogyros have been operated privately, with nearly all of them being used for research and demonstration flying by Wallis himself.
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.

Operators

;WA-116 Agile
;WA-116-T
;WA-117 Venom
;WA-118 Meteorite
;WA-119
;WA-121

Specifications (WA-116)