Ken Wallis Autogyro Pioneer Dies At 97

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 4, 2013 @11:59AM from the fare-thee-well dept.

First time accepted submitter gb7djk writes "Wing Commander Ken Wallis the developer and promoter of small autogyros died peacefully today 4th September, aged 97, at his home in Norfolk. Ken is mainly remembered for 'Little Nellie', the tooled up autogyro that took on some helicopters in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. He made the breakthrough discovery of the offset rotor head that made autogyros stable as well as many other aviation inventions. More info here and a video of him flying one of his creations (at the age of 95)."

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A great man... by PhantomHarlock · 2013-09-04 12:34 · Score: 4, Interesting

...without which we would not have the Bruce Spence character in The Road Warrior!
Re:And this was before safety by milkmage · 2013-09-04 13:55 · Score: 3, Interesting

Yeager, Chuck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager
On October 14, 2012 on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, Yeager did it again in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, out of Nellis Air Force Base at the age of 89
he's old and bold. how many 89 year olds break Mach? and he was a test pilot for 30 years after he retired officially.
"The Right Stuff" is right.