Scrobs has now read everything that Nevil Shute wrote, from his very first story, to his autobiography, 'Slide rule', which I finished yesterday...
Now there was one man I really would have wanted to meet!
'Slide rule' describes all his working life in the airship and aeroplane business, from an unpaid job with de Havilland to Managing Director of Airspeed Ltd. When he was at Vickers, his close involvement with the design and development of the R100 was the commercial version of the sister ship, the R101. Both were commisioned by the Air Ministry, and Nevil Shute Norway's company was the privately organised concern, operating out of Howden, Yorkshire, while the other airship was being designed and built by government contractors at Cardington, Bedfordshire.
I need not go into the detail, because it is obvious almost from day one, that Shute's company's design was going to be superior, mainly because of interference and even ignorance from the ministry at most stages, and he pulls no punches when he descibes the pomposity and arrogance of the officials who were administering the whole project. In fact, his narrative almost spills out in anger when he describes later dealings with the powers that be in Whitehall - rather like we experience nowadays, but without the drawing board...
My mum, who was born in a village near Cardington, remembered going down and watching the work on the airship, and I wish I'd asked her more about it all!
The whole story is riveting, and, like his novels, there's a fabulous, heart-warming twist in the end!
R100. Another Barnes Wallis design.
ReplyDeleteSounds like one for the reading list.
ReplyDeleteThe system never changes ... the wrong people in charge.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, DH!
ReplyDeleteIn the story, he is referred to as "Mr B.N.Wallis, who was then a designer of rigid airships working for Vickers Ltd., was gathering together a staff for the design of a very large airship to be known as the R100"!
This was in 1924!
It really is well worth reading AK! There's not a lot of the usual guff which 'slebs' chuck in their biogs to look like a child-manic's version of Wikipedia, his facts are well-written with no detail left out!
ReplyDeleteYou're right of course, James!
ReplyDeleteI was actually surprised at the vehemence he writes into his story, but already knew that he never suffered fools in public service gladly, and his anti-socialist principles often overflowed in his stories!