“Little Nellie” in Sicily

This is to all the doubters who believe that James Bond films are unrealistic fiction: they are not, and if you walk through the world with open eyes and an open mind you will see evidence from time to time. Like I did last week, when I was in the beautiful city of Taormina in Sicily.

I was exploring the Ancient Theatre, both the sea and Mount Etna in sight, when I heard a faint humming approaching quickly. Being trained to identify moving objects by their sound, I couldn’t believe my ears. But as it approached, it was indeed Little Nellie, the gyrocopter from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

Little Nelly 1 Taormina

Little Nelly 2 TaorminaThis strongly suggests that all the other James Bond gadgets are real too.

(Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels.)

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About Andreas Moser

I am a lawyer in Germany, with a focus on international family law, migration and citizenship law, as well as constitutional law. My other interests include long walks, train rides, hitchhiking, history, and writing stories.
This entry was posted in Cinema, Italy, Photography, Sicily, Travel and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to “Little Nellie” in Sicily

  1. Pingback: “Little Nellie” in Sizilien | Briefe aus Italien

  2. Um … not to nitpick, but that’s AN autogyro/gyrocopter, not THE design used in the movie. The pic shows a two-seater, while “Nellie” was a single-seater. I will give you, though, that they are fascinating little birds. Someone around where I live has one – I don’t know where it lives or takes off from, but he has buzzed me a few times. Kinda makes me wish I had actually built that 1:1 scale plastic 88mm Flak gun. Betcha I’d find out REAL quick what the top speed is, if he got a look at it! :D
    Now, if you want something that’s REALLY startling, get up on a ladder about 12′ up in the air, and have a pair of Blackhawk helos come over BELOW tree top level! I swear the door gunner on the second bird was a blonde fellow with green eyes! 8O

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