Group visit to Reymerston Hall 2nd April 2005

In sharp contrast to the cold and snowy 5th March, the original date of our visit, the 2nd April turned out to be one of warmth and glorious sunshine when twenty-four members of the Group visited the home of Wing Commander Ken Wallis to view his collection of Autogyros. Reymerston Hall, which is approximately five miles from Dereham, is the home of a unique collection of nineteen 'Wallis' autogyros built and flown by Ken Wallis since the early 1960's.

Starting at 10.30 a.m. the Group were given a talk about the principles and theory of the autogyro and were then free to roam around the hanger to view the different types of autogyro and the many interesting exhibits and photographs relating to Ken's life in aviation. The star of the collection must be the famous, 'Little Nellie', used in the Bond film "You Only Live Twice". Ken, using a Type WA-116 that he built in 1962 carried out all the autogyro flying in the film. It is interesting to note that he made 85 flights over 45 hours for just 7 minutes of film used in the picture. The sequences, filmed in Japan, were often made at around six a.m., at a height of 6,000ft above sea level, with 'James Bond' wearing a short sleeved shirt. This proved to be rather cold even for our intrepid pilot. Another interesting point is that all the guns and rockets fitted to "Little Nellie" were fully operational although not using real ammunition.

The highlight of the visit was a flying demonstration of the two-seater autogyro WA-116-T "Zeus 3" which was flown by Ken Wallis in the film "The Martian Chronicles". Over one hundred different pilots have flown this machine during its evaluation stage and their names are written on the mast holding the rotor assembly. We all wended our way down to his airstrip, which gave us a wonderful photo opportunity as he taxied between the trees on his journey to the runway. Once lined up Ken started the rotor turning and, after winding up the Franklin engine, was airborne in a very short distance and climbing at a tremendous rate.

The remarkable stability of these wonderful machines was demonstrated when Ken flew circuits of his home with his feet and hands off the controls waving to those assembled below. Although there was very little wind he made the aircraft virtually hover before making some spectacular high speed runs and turns. After landing Ken very kindly answered questions, took part in a Group photograph and individually signed "Little Nellie" postcards for most of the Group before we said goodbye to Reymerston Hall after a very enjoyable and interesting visit.

The agility and versatility of these wonderful little machines is something to behold. Ken Wallis has held all eighteen World records for autogyros and has proved that they can out-perform and out manoeuvre most other aircraft in weather that would ground nearly all them . They can be towed behind a car and are instantly ready for operation as soon as they are removed from the trailer. They are also very cheap to run and maintain and have had over forty years of development.
So, why are they not used commercially?

Roy Purdy