Wing Cmdr Ken Wallis to donate Little Nellie to museum

She starred alongside Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice, beat off five helicopters and is currently on display at one of London's top museums - reports EDP24.

But in the future Little Nellie will be a star exhibit at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation museum in Flixton, near Bungay. The heavily-armed autogyro was designed and flown by Wing Cmdr Ken Wallis, who was Sean Connery's double in the 1967 James Bond film. She will be part of his legacy to the museum, of which he is president. The autogyro is currently on display at the Imperial War Museum in London as part of a special one-year exhibition until next March.

Wing Cmdr Wallis, who lives near Dereham, invented the autogyro following his career in the RAF and at different times set 34 world records in it. Now the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation museum is raising money for a Ken Wallis Hall to display his collection in future, with Little Nellie amongst them.

Wing Cmdr Wallis said: “They do a splendid job at the museum. It is a great honour and a pleasure to be involved with them.

“Little Nellie will be there, with the cases she appears to come out of [in the film]. Her sisters will all be there.”

A planning application has also been submitted for an extension which will be bigger than one the museum already has permission for. It is already having to turn down donations of aircraft which could be added to the 60 it already has.

Museum chairman Ian Hancock said: “The Ken Wallis collection is of international importance. Thousands of autogyros have been built to his design. It is worth saving for the nation and for Suffolk.

“The collection has a high value, especially Little Nellie, but it is the sentimental value and the importance of the collection that we value. He just wants to make sure his collection is saved for the nation and is not broken up. Obviously we are grateful but we would rather not have it, because we want him to live for a long time.”

The extension will cost an estimated £125,000, and the museum is applying for grants towards the cost. They are also raising money through donations, and proceeds from Mr Hancock's book, The Lives of Ken Wallis, are going to the same cause. It is hoped that building work will start in late summer or autumn. Appropriately, this year marks 100 years of Wallis family involvement in aircraft: Wing Cmdr Wallis' father and uncle built the Wallbro, probably the first aircraft in East Anglia. It was destroyed in a storm in 1910 but a flying reproduction is on display in Flixton.

The museum is open Sunday to Thursday in summer, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday in winter. Admission is free.

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