Ken Wallis DSO MBE
Awarded the Segrave Trophy twice:
1968 – for his development and airmanship in the field of lightweight autogyro aircraft and attaining multiple world records.
1985 – for his lifetime of achievement in aviation, including a multitude of world records for altitude, speed and range in autogyro aircraft.
Wallis was a Second World War flying ace, a survivor of 28 hair-raising bombing raids which included mid-air explosions, parachute escapes and crash landings in bullet-peppered Wellingtons. Clinching his pilot’s licence despite dodgy eyesight, he joined Bomber Command in 1941, serving with 103 Squadron in Lincolnshire and 37 Squadron in Italy. After the war he spent 20 years in weapons research, development and testing. With no formal engineering training, he designed and built powerboats, sports cars and a series of auto-gyro aircraft, and established 34 world records in them – 17 of which he still held when he died aged 97 in 2013. His gyrocopters were used for everything from police manhunts to aerial photography, and the most famous example nicknamed Little Nellie had a starring role in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, where the daredevil Wallis stunt-doubled the sensational flying sequences for Sean Connery; for the seven on-screen minutes Wallis flew for 46 hours over 85 lights…
