THE MINI-AIRCRAFT

FROM: You Only Live Twice

In YouOnlyLiveTwice, Bond takes to the skies in a special one-person aircraft to track down Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s secret base. Dubbed ‘Little Nellie’, the aircraft is neither a plane nor a helicopter. It’s actually an autogyro, which looks a bit like a small helicopter. But where it differs from a regular chopper is that it has no power to its rotor blades, which move via the momentum created by the aircraft’s rear motor instead. Little Nellie was a cut-down version of the Wallis WA-116 Agile, developed in the early 1960s by former Royal Air Force Wing Commander Ken Wallis. The version we see on screen is the real one, although Bond’s was heavily armed and was equipped with – among other things – rockets and flamethrowers. Bond’s was also highly portable, being brought to him by Q Branch folded up in four cases.

Bond took to the skies in Ken Wallis’ Little Nelly – although his didn’t have missiles.