Ken Wallis Tribute

The picture that caught my attention was the one below showing Ken Wallis with German fighter ace Adolf Galland (104 victories) but the really interesting part is the text below the picture where the modeller who built the 1/18th scale Little Nelli (see post #3) states that he received blueprints from the Norfolk & Suffolk aviation museum. Could one of our English members perhaps check out one of these days whether this material is still available and what kind of information it is?

http://www.militarymodelling.com/forums/postings.asp?th=114854&p=2

A few more links:
http://www.007magazine.co.uk/news_ken_wallis.htm

http://aviadejavu.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft31240.htm

On this site there is a picture where Ken is putting the aircraft down on a wooden platform on the back of a moving truck, what an outstanding pilot Commander Wallis was!
http://www.lakedistrictgyroplanes.co.uk/ken-wallis-experiences/

This is a separate link to the picture below:
http://s1308.photobucket.com/user/Wallis_WA-116_Agile/media/IMAGE_0073_zpsieqm6kum.jpg.html

http://www.lakedistrictgyroplanes.co.uk/ken-wallis-experiences/

https://airandspace.si.edu/webimages/previews/5373p.jpg

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-27297280
 

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Highly recommend the dvd Born to be Bond. The price has doubled over the last 3 years, but still so worth it for a 100 minutes of Ken. Legend.
 
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My wife and I were very fortunate to chauffeur Ken around NY when he attended the Auto Gyro conference at Hofstrau University. We took him down to the Pitcairn hanger where he was supposed to go for a ride. The weather put a stop to it. Ken struck me as an outstanding example of a true Gentleman. Did you know he had limited vision in one eye? If you look at his "Little Nellie" as well as some other ships his thrust line was well above the c.g. Never seemed to bother him. A long with Ken there was another English gentleman who was associated with the speed record on the Lynx helicopter. David Gibbings. Very good artist who recently received a lifetime achievement award for his aviation efforts. We Skype occasionally with David.
 
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klyde;n1120888 said:
If you look at his "Little Nellie" as well as some other ships his thrust line was well above the c.g.

This is not what I see here. In my opinion, this prop thrust line is through the gravity center.
 

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Kevin, that photo of Ken sitting side saddle is pretty amazing. However, looking closely it appears he still has his seat belt on!
Not totally crazy. Thanks for that image.

Cheers,

Dave
 
Jean - Claude;n1121107 said:
This is not what I see here. In my opinion, this prop thrust line is through the gravity center.

Look at Little Nellie. She had fuel tanks and missile pods below the seat bottom. Further in conversations with Ken and also an article written by Ken that was published in the PRA magazine, he was not concerned about thrust line vs. c.g. Look also at the photo of him with his legs hanging down. There is a fuel tank below the engine.
 
How much does dummy missiles weigh?
You seem to omit the rotor mass at the top of the mast.
Here, this principal masses gives GC less 2 inches below prop. axis
 

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Quick way to find out. Level flight advance the throttle and see what the pitch response is. When the CLT thing blossomed out in the PRA, my wife was the editor of the PRA magazine. We were pulsed by the then President and asked if we were going to print Ken's article. We hadn't seen it. When we got our hands on it we did have it printed only to have the PRA board complain. Subsequent discussion with Ken found that he was happy flying a gyro that didn't have the CLT. My 90hp Benson certainly did not have CLT and in the days when you could not get dual, both my wife and I soloed the ship with no PIO problems.
Little Nellie had fuel tanks below the seat as we'll as the rocket pods. Ken personally told me that the thrust line was above the c.g.
 
Well that certainly is a force diagram. Not sure what it means for the various builder configurations that were found on Bensons. I'm quite sure it doesn't apply to all configs. My Benson had a larger diameter prop courtesy of Ken Brock and the engine was raised slightly to provide clearance. I also had a metal fuel tank capable of 6 gal of fuel mounted below the seat (about 40# below the seat) and my propellor thrust line went about thru my shirt pockets.
 
Another very nice high resolution picture. Not Little Nelly but very similar.
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3f...-wallis-PA.jpg


By the way Stuart, I understand Chuck to the effect that Bensen, who was a pro, designed his gyrocopter to be CLT and that all the modifications, e.g. by Ken Brock, ultimately led to the now well known problems and tragic events.
 
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Rotor mast looks round, not square/rectangular. Great expression on 'ol Ken's face !

Regarding that force diagram; the ACTUAL thrustline could be anywhere, but it is represented as the RESULTANT or EQUIVALENT through the CG.

Brian
 
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