Month: June 2024

The novelist Nevil Shute was once known as NS Norway, pilot, aeronautical engineer, and for a while a principal of the company that made the fastest aeroplanes in the world, known ironically as Airspeed Limited. His autobiography is well written and interests me a great deal, and the section on his work on the R.100 continues the airship theme from My Zeppelins and My Polar Flights.

Recordings

• 2024–06–25 The first chapter starts south of Melbourne, Victoria, in the early 1950s, and then flashes back to the author’s youth in London, where he skipped school to visit the South Kensington Science Museum.
• 2024–06–28 The end of the First World War, sailing, early days at de Havillands, a piece of poetry (someone else’s) described as very good and another (the author’s) as very bad, and some advice on writing.
• 2024–07–02 The beginning of work on the airship R–100, a discussion of what makes a good test pilot, and the publication of the author’s first novel, Marazan.
• 2024–07–05 Completion and first flight of R–100, and a mention of how So Disdained was published in the USA as The Mysterious Aviator.
• 2024–07–09 Flight trials of R–100, and the beginning of the flight to Canada, with some vivid description of fascinating aspects of airmanship, and remarks on the difficulties of R–101.
• 2024–07–12 “Aircraft do not crash of themselves. One crash in a thousand may be unavoidable because God wills it so — no more than that.” The flight to Canada, concluded ; rough weather and mid–air repairs ; the disaster of the R–101 and reflections on its origins.
• 2024–07–16 The disaster of the R–101 and the end of airships in Britain, lessons drawn about institutions, and the origins of Airspeed Limited.
• 2024–07–19 Early days at Airspeed Limited, with ruminations on the problem of risk capital ; the sad story of a German pilot who wanted to immigrate to Britain, but was deported back to Germany, where he undoubtedly ended by flying for the Luftwaffe against Britain ; and the observation that “everybody pays lip service to the safety of aeroplanes, but nobody is prepared to pay anything for it.”
• 2024–07–23 More thoughts about risk capital and its implications, and about what makes a good test pilot ; air–to–air refueling experiments ; financial shenanigans ; and the genesis of the Courier and Envoy aircraft. Look here for some photos of the work at Airspeed, Ltd.
• 2024–08–02 From Munich (my delayed baggage arrives at about the 45–minute mark). “At that time I was acquiring a reputation with my co–directors and with my City associates for a reckless and unscrupulous optimism that came close to dishonesty. I think this bad reputation was deserved… It is one of the defects of the capitalistic system that a managing director’s responsibility to his employees and his responsibility to the investing public may conflict and often do ; the resolution of this conflict is a matter to be solved by each man for himself.”
• 2024–09–03 Has it really been a month since my last show? In this episode, the debacle of CP Ulm’s trans Pacific Envoy, the debacle of the Wolseley engine which gave the author yet more reason to resent non technical civil servants who made no effort to understand the subjects they were making rules about, his growing dissatisfaction with the company even as its commercial prospects were improving, and the personal triumph of being selected to supply aircraft for the King’s Flight. Only Chapter 11 remains in the book.
• 2024–09–10 The conclusion, all in the first quarter of the hour. We sense that the author could have said more, for instance about his work in the Second World War ; but perhaps the time was not yet ripe to speak of such things, or perhaps they simply did not fit the story he wished to tell.