I agree with ' No Highway ', surely must be that book & film ?
Nevil Shute Norway wasn't just a gifted writer, he was a proper aircraft engineer / designer draughtsman, his autobiography ' Slide Rule ' is fascinating, he joined the design team of the R100 airship, observing the rival R101 with dismay; of course he and others proved correct, tragically.
N.S.W.'s books often seem wierdly phrophetic, and there was indeed a book written by someone else ( in the 1970's I think ) ' The Airmen Who Would Not Die ' about the R101 from the mystical side, if you're into that sort of thing it's well worth reading.
Nevil Shute Norway went on in the 1930's & 40's to found Airspeed Ltd at the now built over Portsmouth Airfield, so put his money where his mouth was to say the least !
His books ' Round The Bend ', The Rainbow & The Rose' & ' Beyond The Black Stump ' have a vision of both what we would all dream of in pioneer aviation, and a future few could have imagined at the time of writing.
He also foresaw the Blitz in ' What Happened to The Corbetts ', though my favourite for sheer story is ' Requiem For a Wren ' - I won't give anything away about the ending !
My friend's father was Bob Milne ( a tribute to whom is on the ' Tartan Terror's ' site, he test flew over 2,000 Oxfords among a lot of others ! ), a Test Pilot for him before, during & after WWII, and their ' let's build & fly it ' attitude makes one wish for a time machine to go with them; N.S.W. Foresaw the material failings of airships and pressurised metal aircraft, and deserves a lot more credit in the aviation world.
Last edited by Double Zero; 15th Mar 2010 at 21:51.