Kenneth Horatio Wallis was born in April 1916 and was still flying as of 10 September this year, when he popped in to Shipdam airfield, Norfolk, for a cup of tea.
Ken bends the laws of physics in his immediate vicinity; light is obliged to travel slower so that he is only sixty, not 93. Entropy sticks its nose in the air and is made to keep on the other side of the fence, unless it wants seeing-off with a broom. Gravity has to stand with its hands clasped neatly behind its back, instead of shoving its fists in its pockets and whistling insolently. The forces of nature all apply to him, but they dare not do so in the same way they apply to the rest of us. He is at home in the sky the way birds are. To see him land at an airfield is to be reminded of a sandy raven; clever, focused, inquisitive, ready to talk on any matter so long as it is the subject of flying.
It's not just the flying; it's the way Ken can build and repair mechanical objects with a dexterity which is increasingly the preserve of historical enthusiasts which is so startling, as anyone who has visited his workshops will tell you. Wallis is capable of making his dreams roll out of the hangar and in to the sky - a vital skill which is nothing like widely enough promoted.
As is painfully apparent from the Philippe Starck design school documentary, a UK student may walk out of college with a three year degree allegedly in product design, but they can't do the part which makes a product work. People in their twenties have been told that a portfolio of drawings about how things look on the outside is a substitute for how things work on the inside, and that an engineer is going to be available and abjectly grateful for the chance to make their idea flesh, should they ever get a job. Unlikely; there aren't enough engineers and those there are, are not short of ideas of their own; the desire to build things drew them to engineering in the first place, and they will make a better job of it than the design students because for them, form follows function, not the other way round. Why they would waste their life playing second fiddle to a graphics designer who can't be bothered to acquire fabrication skills? Why would you bother employing two people if one person, the engineer, can do it all? Although theatrically Gallic, slapping his own head in a way which conveys the depth of his despair, Starck is right - it's just not good enough. It is no surprise to find that Starck's father, like Ken Wallis's, was an aircraft engineer and that they both grew up dismantling and re-building toys, bicycles, and eventually bigger machines such as motorbikes. In 1908 Ken's father built a plane in which he hoped to cross the channel. Bleriot beat him to it. Pipped by the French, he was, in 1909.
Now there is a chance to catch Ken Wallis on the ground and ask him some questions as his life spans most of the modern history of aviation. On Saturday 14 November he will be giving a lecture "A Career in Aviation" at the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, Bedfordshire. Included in the price - £37 - is a buffet lunch and a guided tour of the Collection. Tickets are by phone: 01767 627 933
Itinerary
09.30 Arrival Tea & Coffee
10.00 Lecture by Wing Cdr. Ken Wallis in the Lecture Theatre Shuttleworth College
12.30 Buffet Lunch, Princess Charlotte Room, Shuttleworth Collection Visitor Centre
13.30 Guided Tour of the Shuttleworth Collection
Volunteer engineers & pilots on hand to explain more detail
16.30 Return to Visitor Centre to browse and buy in the shop
Author: Sabine de Quincy
3 comments:
He is a national treasure indeed. I was lucky enough once to visit him at Reymersham Hall, his "Q's lair". he really is Q, actualy, but with the edge that comes from being the actual combat pilot as well.
He is mostly known these days for his autogyros but is a prolific inventor of other things too, and has a distinguished record in WW2 as an RAF pilot on Wellingtons, among other types, and doing lots of off-piste work with the boffins experimenting with weapons systems.
The 14th is a must-attend for me, I think.
Excellent post.
He's right: it is absolutely beautifully written as well as eloquently argued.
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