I sit writing this having just heard that Wing Commander Ken Wallis has finally left us after an extraordinarily long and interesting life. I cannot help but think most of you will know all about him but as some wont I shall provide a very short biography, one that does no justice to the man at all. He was born in 1916, joining a family already successfully experimenting in powered flight and it wasn't long before such genetic predispositions showed themselves in the young Ken. Before the age of twenty he had designed and built various motorbikes, cars and speedboats but the war prematurely blocked this path; taking him away to become a bomber pilot flying Lysanders and Wellingtons. After the ceasing of hostilities he continued in the RAF, being involved with weapons development and gaining a number of patents before retiring in 1964. During the 1950s he continued his previous engineering hobbies, amongst other things developing and building his own super small slot cars and cameras (both with remarkable results). Perhaps most significantly he also started his life with autogyros, probably the device that he will forever be most closely linked with.
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