# Little Nellie (autogyro)
**Little Nellie** is the nickname of a heavily armed single-seat autogyro, a modified Wallis WA-116 Agile registered G-ARZB, that starred in the 1967 [James Bond](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-bond) film *You Only Live Twice*. In the film, Q delivers the aircraft to Japan in four suitcases, and Bond flies it against SPECTRE helicopters; in reality, the aircraft's designer, former Royal Air Force Wing Commander Ken Wallis, performed all of the flying himself as [Sean Connery](https://www.edgepedia.org/sean-connery)'s double.[1](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/23572177413) • [2](https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/content/little-nellie-the-wallis-wa-116-autogyro.htm) • [3](https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/kenneth-h-wallis)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Aircraft | Wallis WA-116 Agile Series 1 autogyro, civil registration G-ARZB, military serial XR943, constructor's number B.203, built 1962[1](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/23572177413) |
| Designer and pilot | Ken Wallis (1916–2013), former RAF Wing Commander, who flew every filmed sequence as Connery's double[3](https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/kenneth-h-wallis) |
| Powerplant | One 72 hp McCulloch 4318A piston engine driving a pusher propeller; free-wheeling rotor of 6.2 m diameter[4](https://www.helis.com/database/model/118/) |
| Performance | Empty weight 116 kg, maximum speed 161 km/h, range 387 km, service ceiling 3,000 m[4](https://www.helis.com/database/model/118/) |
| Film armament | Two machine guns, twin flamethrowers, smoke ejectors, parachute-retarded aerial mines, rocket launchers, and heat-seeking air-to-air missiles[5](https://www.bmt216a.dk/Vehicles/BMT216Avehicle.html?id=6) |
| Filming effort | 85 takeoffs and landings and 46 hours of flight time for about 7.5 minutes of screen time[6](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/live-and-let-fly-442427/) |
| Preservation | Passed to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden after Wallis's death; canceled from the UK register in 2016[7](https://www.airhistory.net/photo/890374/G-ARZB) |
## The aircraft behind the gadget
Little Nellie was not built for the film. It was one of a series of autogyros designed by Kenneth Horatio Wallis, a [Royal Air Force](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-air-force) officer who had flown bombers in the Second World War and B-36 aircraft with the United States Strategic Air Command before retiring in 1964 to develop his own rotorcraft.[3](https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/kenneth-h-wallis) • [8](https://www.aviationmuseum.net/KenWallis.htm) The WA-116 prototype first flew on 2 August 1961, and a batch of five was built by Beagle Aircraft in 1962, three of which were evaluated by the British Army Air Corps for spotting and liaison work; the evaluation did not lead to an order.[9](https://www.aerosociety.com/media/4854/the-evolution-of-the-british-rotorcraft-industry-1842-2012.pdf) G-ARZB, one of the Army evaluation airframes, carried the military serial XR943 before returning to civil registration.[1](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/23572177413)
Wallis's design departed from the simple Bensen-style kit gyrocopters of the period through a set of patented features, most importantly an offset gimbal rotor head that gave the aircraft hands-off stability, along with a rotor spin-up mechanism that let the pilot bring the rotor to takeoff speed under power before disengaging it in flight.[10](https://mail.1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/SmithRon/11274.htm) • [11](https://doczz.net/doc/1017733/march-1966---rotary-wing-forum) An autogyro generates lift from an unpowered rotor turning in autorotation while an engine-driven propeller provides thrust, so unlike a helicopter it cannot hover, but it needs only a very short takeoff run; the WA-116 could lift off in roughly 27 to 30 yards.[5](https://www.bmt216a.dk/Vehicles/BMT216Avehicle.html?id=6) • [2](https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/content/little-nellie-the-wallis-wa-116-autogyro.htm)
## How the film role came about
The sequence originated with a BBC radio interview. In 1966 a radio interviewer asked Wallis whether he would like to fight a helicopter in his autogyro, and production designer Ken Adam heard the broadcast; Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie, aviation consultant for EON Productions, then called Wallis and asked him to bring an autogyro to [Pinewood Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/pinewood-studios).[12](https://www.mi6-hq.com//sections/articles/interview_ken_wallis_little_nellie) After a demonstration there, producer Cubby Broccoli told him the aircraft would need to be in Japan within six weeks, complete with paint scheme and weapons systems.[13](https://djwilliamsphotography.com/articles/Ken_Wallis_2.htm)
Two WA-116s were prepared for the film, G-ARZB and G-AVDH, both fitted with a yellow fuselage pod and mock armament; only G-ARZB flew in the sequences and it is regarded as the film's Little Nellie.[14](https://uk.corgi.co.uk/community/blog-and-news/die-cast-diaries/historic-vanguards-and-bonds-deadly-autogyro) The special-effects team under John Stears fitted dummy heat-seeking missiles, 44 mm rockets, rearward-firing flamethrowers, and two machine guns, and the instrument panel carried controls marked for the fictional weapons.[15](https://www.rexresearch1.com/HelicopterLibrary/HelicoptersMilitaryCivilianRescueRotorcraft.pdf) • [1](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/23572177413)
## Filming the aerial battle
The Little Nellie sequence consumed a disproportionate amount of flying. Wallis recalled making 85 takeoffs and landings and flying 46 hours to produce about seven and a half minutes on screen, much of it at around 6,000 feet above Japan's Sakurajima volcano, wearing a short-sleeved shirt to match Connery's costume for continuity.[6](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/live-and-let-fly-442427/) • [14](https://uk.corgi.co.uk/community/blog-and-news/die-cast-diaries/historic-vanguards-and-bonds-deadly-autogyro) Because Japanese law prohibited firing guns, even dummy ones, in midair over Japan, the missile-firing battle footage was completed in Spain near Torremolinos.[16](https://spymovienavigator.com/spymdb/little-nellie/) • [17](https://jamesbondstudies.ac.uk/articles/115/files/660d413567466.pdf) Connery's cockpit close-ups were shot against a blue screen at Pinewood.[6](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/live-and-let-fly-442427/)
The filming was dangerous for the camera crew as well. Aerial cameraman John Jordan hung from a harness beside the aircraft, and during the sequence in which Little Nellie is attacked by [Bell 47](https://www.edgepedia.org/bell-47) helicopters a rotor blade struck his foot, nearly severing it; surgeons reattached it in Japan, but after returning to London he had it amputated.[18](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/features/story-of-the-scene-you-only-live-twice-1967-1758895.html)
## The name
Wallis said the name followed a Second World War tradition of nicknaming anyone called Wallis or Wallace "Nellie", after Nellie Wallace, the British music hall star and actress.[19](https://www.007.com/focus-of-the-week-little-nellie/)
## After the film
The film made Wallis and his aircraft internationally known, and he spent years afterward giving demonstrations; G-ARZB alone flew in more than 700 major air displays.[8](https://www.aviationmuseum.net/KenWallis.htm) • [20](https://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9171) Wallis continued developing the WA-116 line and set 34 FAI world records in two autogyro classes, many of them still held at his death, including a closed-circuit speed record of 190.41 km/h set in a WA-116/F/S in 1985.[8](https://www.aviationmuseum.net/KenWallis.htm) • [21](https://www-2025.fai.org/record/306) He flew G-ARZB until 2013 and died on 1 September 2013 at the age of 97.[5](https://www.bmt216a.dk/Vehicles/BMT216Avehicle.html?id=6) • [22](https://www.wallisdefenders.co.uk/gyro/)
After his death the aircraft passed to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, Bedfordshire, where it has been displayed; it was canceled from the UK civil register in 2016.[7](https://www.airhistory.net/photo/890374/G-ARZB) • [1](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/23572177413) The cockpit nacelle used in the film's early takeoff scenes, inscribed by Wallis as the original Little Nellie cockpit, was auctioned in 2024 with an estimate of £75,000 to £150,000.[23](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/sean-connery-sean-pierce-brosnan-spectre-scottish-b2643054.html)
## References
1. [Wallis WA.116 Autogyro 'G-ARZB' 'Little Nellie', Flickr (Alan Wilson)](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/23572177413)
2. [Little Nellie – the Wallis WA-116 autogyro, The James Bond Dossier](https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/content/little-nellie-the-wallis-wa-116-autogyro.htm)
3. [Kenneth H. Wallis, National Air and Space Museum](https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/kenneth-h-wallis)
4. [Wallis WA-116 autogyro, Helis.com](https://www.helis.com/database/model/118/)
5. [BMT 216A: Wallis WA-116 autogyro](https://www.bmt216a.dk/Vehicles/BMT216Avehicle.html?id=6)
6. [Live and Let Fly, Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/live-and-let-fly-442427/)
7. [Aircraft Photo of G-ARZB, AirHistory.net](https://www.airhistory.net/photo/890374/G-ARZB)
8. [Ken Wallis, aviationmuseum.net](https://www.aviationmuseum.net/KenWallis.htm)
9. [The Evolution of the British Rotorcraft Industry 1842–2012, Royal Aeronautical Society](https://www.aerosociety.com/media/4854/the-evolution-of-the-british-rotorcraft-industry-1842-2012.pdf)
10. [Wallis WA.116 Srs.1, 1000aircraftphotos.com](https://mail.1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/SmithRon/11274.htm)
11. [Flight, March 1966: The Wallis Autogyros (Rotary Wing Forum transcription)](https://doczz.net/doc/1017733/march-1966---rotary-wing-forum)
12. [Up, Up And Away: MI6 interview with Ken Wallis](https://www.mi6-hq.com//sections/articles/interview_ken_wallis_little_nellie)
13. [An Interview with Wing Commander Kenneth H Wallis, Part Two](https://djwilliamsphotography.com/articles/Ken_Wallis_2.htm)
14. [Historic Vanguards and Bond's Deadly Autogyro, Corgi](https://uk.corgi.co.uk/community/blog-and-news/die-cast-diaries/historic-vanguards-and-bonds-deadly-autogyro)
15. [The Aviation Factfile: Helicopters (2005)](https://www.rexresearch1.com/HelicopterLibrary/HelicoptersMilitaryCivilianRescueRotorcraft.pdf)
16. [Little Nellie, Spy Movie Navigator](https://spymovienavigator.com/spymdb/little-nellie/)
17. [Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond, James Bond Studies](https://jamesbondstudies.ac.uk/articles/115/files/660d413567466.pdf)
18. [Story of the Scene: You Only Live Twice (1967), The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/features/story-of-the-scene-you-only-live-twice-1967-1758895.html)
19. [Focus Of The Week: Little Nellie, 007.com](https://www.007.com/focus-of-the-week-little-nellie/)
20. [The WORLDS first ever all electric rotary winged aircraft, F1technical.net](https://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9171)
21. [Kenneth H. Wallis (GBR) record, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale](https://www-2025.fai.org/record/306)
22. [The History of Ken Wallis, Wallis Defenders](https://www.wallisdefenders.co.uk/gyro/)
23. [James Bond autogyro cockpit cover among 007 film memorabilia up for auction, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/sean-connery-sean-pierce-brosnan-spectre-scottish-b2643054.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Transport and spaceflight › Aviation › Aircraft › Helicopters and rotorcraft › Autogyros and gyrodynes › Autogyros in media and culture*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license