c.1970 Jeremy Fry and James Dyson set up Prototypes Ltd to develop new products and produce working prototypes which would then be manufactured elsewhere: joint projects included the Squirrel, an outdoor wheelchair with four-wheel drive and power steering, manufactured in collaboration with Lord Snowdon, which was never a commercial success, and a bagless vacuum cleaner.
Later Dyson bought Fry out of Prototypes Ltd and set up his own company, the Air Power Vacuum Cleaner Co which very successfully developed the upright dual cyclone vacuum cleaner.