Who remembers Little Nellie?
The Gyroplane from the 007 James Bond movie – ‘You Only Live Twice’. (If you haven’t seen Little Nellie in action, I copied below some video look at the opening scene which features Little Nellie, scroll down.)
I remember as a young boy, seeing this incredible flying machine and how it performed just ‘owned me’. As our hero Bond took to the skies this would forever plant in my mind a desire to fly. They call the Gyroplane the ‘motobike of the skies’ due to it’s incredible ’seat of your pants’ performance and the open air cockpit.
During You Only Live Twice, Bond asks Tiger Tanaka to contact M and arrange for Little Nellie to be delivered along with her father. Little Nellie arrives in 4 large suitcases accompanied by her father, Q.
After being assembled Bond uses Little Nellie to scout remote mountains and volcanoes to try to find the missing US and Russian spacecrafts. During his reconnaissance mission, five SPECTRE helicopters armed with machine guns confront him. Using all Little Nellie gadgets, Bond manages to defeat SPECTRE and return to base. (see brief video below from You Only Live Twice among other scenes too.)
Loaded with gadgetry, Little Nellie sported two rear flame guns, aerial mines, front-mounted machine guns, two rocket launchers, smoke ejectors and two heat seeking air-to-air missiles, just wonderful for a young boy growing up on the Bond legend!
For those who appreciate some of Bond’s gizmo’s and gadgets, see this short video clip which at the beginning features Little Nellie, plus many other great Bond moments.
Here’s the history from Commander Ken Wallis himself on the story behind Little Nellie. I joined the British Rotorcraft Association many years ago and their annual Wallis Day’s fly-in up in Norfolk would include a visit with Commander Walis to his home where he has about 19-20 gyros. I just found this on YouTube of another event where he tells the story behind Little Nellie becoming part of James Bond history.
More on my Glyro Flying dreams realised later….
Your friend, John Deighton
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