James Bond's Autogyro "Little Nellie"

I thought, for my Christmas scale model build, I’d steer clear of anything military and share instead an iconic gadget from a James Bond film! For as far back as I can remember, before they became a commercial TV staple, Bond movies were a highlight in the Christmas & New Year TV schedule. It is for this memory that I make my excuse for building this Airfix 1:24 scale kit of Little Nellie, James Bond’s Autogiro from the 1967 film You Only Live Twice. As if I needed one! 

Airfix 1:24 scale Little Nellie

The model is Airfix's 1:24 scale kit, Little Nellie, James Bond’s Autogiro from the 1967 film You Only Live Twice. Little Nellie, named after music hall star Nellie Wallace, who has a similar surname to its inventor, was a Wallis WA-116 Agile, a British autogyro developed in the early 1960s by former Royal Air Force Wing Commander Ken Wallis. In 1962, five WA-116s were built by Beagle Aircraft at Shoreham, three were for evaluation by the British Army Air Corps, one kept for Wallis’s own use while aircraft number G-ARZB went on to be transformed into Little Nellie.

Just wondering, if anyone ever used the British Army Air Corps decals! 

You Only Live Twice's film director, Lewis Gilbert, first got the idea to use this Bondlike piece of equipment in May 1966, after reading an article on the Russian-American autogiro expert, Igor Benson, in a Time Magazine. Coincidentally, and before a meeting could be set up with Igor, Ken Adam, Lewis's production designer, heard a BBC interview with Ken Wallace who was about to fly his autogyro for an Italian film company who were making their own spy movie, Dick Smart 2.007, in Brazil! Adam invited Wallis to Pinewood to demonstrate his autogyro and a deal was immediately struck. Shooting was to start in six weeks, so, while Beagle-built WA-116 G-ARZB was made more Bondlike, with various rockets and a new paint scheme, Wallis had just enough time to complete his Dick Smart commitment in Brazil, before joining Little Nellie in Kagoshima, Japan.

Q explains to Bond the additional features of Little Nellie

On 18th September 1966 the arial film unit, led by cameraman Johnny Jordan, started filming Little Nellie’s scene; a dogfight with four Bell H-13 helicopters over Mount Kirshima in Japan. 

These storyboards helped the aerial unit visualise the fight between
  Little Nellie and the SPECTRE helicopters.

The scene opens with Bond flying Little Nellie over a volcanic landscape in search of SPECTRE's secret base. Bond then sees the shadow of four helicopters closing in on his own. He's got company! 

 

The lead helicopter closes in and opens fire with its twin machine guns; you hear Little Nellie take glancing hits, but there's no serious damage. Bond lets it close further, to within range of his 2 rear facing flamethrowers, and with a push of a button the helicopter is engulfed in a fireball. 

Bond pulls back on the joystick to climb above the second and through the clear bubble canopy of the helicopter below, the SECTRE pilot looks up to sees a cloud of aerial mines, hung beneath little parachutes, floating down towards him. Multiple explosions rip the rota blades apart and the helicopter plummets to the ground. 

Dropping in behind the third attacker, Bond fires off a volley of bullets from the 2 forward facing machine guns, but being unable to sight the target within the guns 100 yard kill zone, they fail to hit. Bond, selects another switch, labelled Rocket Launcher. In doing so, a deadly stream of 14 incendiaries and high explosives are released, emptying the two launchers and obliterating the third helicopter.

Bond can't shake the fourth off his six, but Little Nellie has one final surprise for her attackers. The  last button Bond has available, is marked A-A Missiles. 2 heat seeking missiles lignite, race forward, and then turn, like dogs picking up a scent, through 180 degrees, and strike the last attack helicopter, head-on.

SPECTRE 0 : Little Nellie 4.  

Bond reports back to base, Bond reports back to base, “Little Nellie got a hot reception, 4 big shots made improper advances toward her, but defended her honour with great success"!

Airfix 1:24 scale Little Nellie

While the final cut gave the film franchise an audience pleasing visual hit, and another iconic Bond collectable, to join the Aston Martin DB5, it was not created without circumstance. Nine days into the shoot, on 27 September, there was an accident while filming one of the dogfight scenes. John Jordan was sitting with his feet on the skidoo the camera helicopter to film from the side when one of the SPECTRE helicopters flew in too close, slicing through the skid and Jordan's leg! The SPECTRE helicopter crashed into the mountainside, while the camera helicopter managed an unorthodox landing on stone blocks placed under the missing skid, John's foot, meanwhile, could not be saved. After being patched up by surgeons in Japan, it failed to properly heal, and so 6 months later, back in London, John asks for it to be amputated. This was not, however, the end for John Jordan's filming career. Fitted with a prosthetic foot, he was quickly back on set to film the the aerial sequences for both Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Battle of Britain, produced by 007's Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, respectively. He even returns to complete the areal photography on next Bond epic, OHMSS.

Another James Bond Collectable - The Commemorative Little Nellie Stamp 17 March 2020 

The real life WA-116 was not without its own issues and although nearly all were used for research or demonstration flying by Wallis himself, the crash and the death of a test pilot, flying one of his autogyros at the Farnborough Air Show in 1970, led to Wallis finally withdrawing all his autogyros from use by anyone other than himself. Little Nellie (G-ARZB) is apparently still airworthy and was still being flown by Wallis right up until his death in 2013.

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The model

Brand: Airfix
Title: James Bond's Autogyro
Number: 04401
Scale: 1:24
Released: 1967 | Rebox 1996)