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1921
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Oxford Summer Holidays: Shute works at Airco which has now become De Havillands and moved, in 1921, to Stag Lane. At De Havillands Shute first meets Alan Cobham and Hessel Tiltman. Geoffrey De Havilland takes Shute up in a DH6 to demonstrate stability.
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1922
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Early: Shute's fiance leaves him for a man that Shute describes as
"very much below her socially" and probably an English "Liberal". Shute is
very distressed and later says he was unhappy for two years.
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1922
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Summer: Shute graduates from Oxford with a 3rd Class Honours Degree in Engineering.
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1922
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Summer: Spends a month cruising with friends.
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1922
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Summer: Shute holidays in Bordighera, Italy with his parents. Writes his first short story. Unpublished.
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1923
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Early: Shute moves to 29 Stag Lane Edgeware Middlesex. It is very near
De Havillands.
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1923
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Shute writes "Stephen Morris" in his spare time.
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1923
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January: Shute joins De Havillands.
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1923
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Spring Shute learns to fly at De Havillands on an Avro 504. He gets his Royal Aero Club certificate in February 1924.
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1923
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July 10: Mr and Mrs Norway buy a house at Liss off the Portsmouth Road near Petersfield. They own it until September 29 1927. The proximity to Petersfield probably leads Shute to meet Flora Twort.
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1923
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1923 Late: Shute meets artist Flora Twort (1893-1985) at No. 1 The Square
Petersfield which is a bookshop and the centre of an art colony run by Harry
Roberts. Twort, then aged 30, and 2 other young women are working there.
Shute attempts an unfinished history or fictional history called "No. 1 The
Square Petersfield".
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1923
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June - September: Shute receives at least 3 rejections of "Stephen Morris" at 29 Stag Lane. He shelves the book. It is published posthumously in 1961.
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1923
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September 23: Shute mentions in a letter that he has a broken arm.
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1923
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September: The DH53 Hummingbird for which Shute designs the propeller first flies. Built for the 1923 Daily Mail trials at Lympne, it is 19.9 feet long, has a wing span of 30 feet, weights 565 pounds and has a top speed of 72 mph.
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1924
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Early: Shute writes "Pilotage" in 14 weeks.
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1924
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June - August: Shute receives at least 6 rejections of "Pilotage" at 29 Stag
Lane Edgeware Middlesex. He shelves the book. It is published posthumously in 1961.
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1924
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Autumn: Seeing no prospects of promotion, Shute leaves De Havillands.
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1924
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Autumn: Shute joins the Vickers R100 team. They are building the "Capitalist"
airship in competition with the government run Cardington team building the R101.
Shute is employed as Chief Calculator. He is the head of a team that constitutes a
human computer calculating the engineering stresses in R100.
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1924
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After August: Shute moves to 43 Hatherly Rd Sidcup, Kent, where he lives while
design on R100 continues for a year in Craysford in Kent, "a depressing industrial
suburb". Shute rides horses daily at dawn on Chiselhurst Common.
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1924
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September - Spring 1926: Somewhere in this period Shute writes "Piuro":
a short story about a real landslide in Italy in 1618 that buried a town.
Alternatively this is possibly the same story he wrote in the Summer of 1922
on his Italian holiday..
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1924
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September to 1939: Somewhere in this period Shute writes "Before The Mail".
It is an unfinished, documentary style, narrative about someone who went on a
dangerous flight. It seems like a pre-cursor to "Pilotage" but the chronology
is hard to fix. The story often mentions Sidcup.
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1924 - 26
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Shute writes "Marazan" over 18 months and with 3 complete re-writes.
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1925
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September 26: Shute proposes to Flora Twort but is rejected.
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1925
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September 28: Shute writes Flora a letter explaining his earlier
engagement and detailing his attitude to marriage. His signature "Shute"
suggests he had revealed his writings to her. They remain life-long friends.
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1925
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September 30: Shute writes Flora a second letter responding to hers.
Flora has revealed she may be unable to have children and has also had a
failed love affair that she is not yet over. Shute reveals that he has hurt
is knee and is convalescing.
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1926
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Spring: Shute moves to Howden with the R100 team. He originally lives
with a garage proprietor 3 miles from the airfield and walks to work each
day. He later lives in a rented room in a house at 78 Hailgate in Howden..
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1926
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June 15 - 16: Shute and a Mr Temple attend tests to destruction at
Birmingham University on 8 experimental girders for R100 manufactured by
Airship Guarantee Company Ltd at Crayford.
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1926
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September 17: Nevil Shute Norway Sir Denniston(sic) Burney, Barnes
Wallis and John Edwin Temple file for a patent titled "Improvements in or
relating to Airships". It is about structural design of airships.
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1926
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"Marazan" is published using the name Nevil Shute.
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1926 - 28
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Shute writes and rewrites "So Disdained" over 18 months.
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1926 - 30
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Shute buys a Morris Cowley 2 seater.
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1926 - 30
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Shute writes several short stories while in York at the address 7 Clifton York.
"Tudor Windows," "Down the Humber in a Motor Cruiser", "Knightly
Vigil". He may have used his club as his postal address regardless of where he lived.
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1926 - 30
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Shute joins and becomes Secretary of the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club at Sherburn-in-Elmet
aerodrome where he later meets his wife-to-be Frances. He hits a fence on landing and
flips onto the runway.
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1926
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October 26: On behalf of the Airship Guarantee Company Shute attends
structural tests at Birmingham University on Transverse and Longitudinal
"Spiders" of the R100.
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1926
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1926 November 02: On behalf of the Airship Guarantee Company Shute attends
repeat structural tests on a transverse "spider" of the R100. The test on
the October 26 seems to have shown the transverse spider to be too weak and
increased gauge material was incorporated prior to the test on the November
02.
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1926
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December: The 1st polygonal ring of girders for R100 being 110' in diameter (the widest
was 130') was hung.
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1928
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February 09: On behalf of the Airship Guarantee Company Shute attends
structural tests on R100 nuts and unions at Leeds University.
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1928
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"So Disdained" is published.
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1929
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January 11: Shute attends a conference with Barnes Wallis, Sir
Denistoun Burney, Bairstow and Major Bishop to discuss the condition of the
R100 structure where Duralumin corrosion is evident. Longitudinal girder
"H" Stbd. in Bay 5 is chosen as representative of the worst condition and it
is decided to remove this and test to the requirements of the Airworthiness
Authority at Birmingham University.
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1929
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February 13: Shute and Barnes Wallis attend an Airworthiness Test at
Birmingham University on a longitudinal girder section of the R100. Two
test specimens of the "H" Stbd, Bay No. 5 girder were taken and this test
was on the first of these.
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1929
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February 14: Shute attends a test on the second R100 girder specimen as
the only representative of the Airship Guarantee Company.
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1929
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Summer: R100s gasbags are inflated.
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1929
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Autumn: Shute is officially made Deputy Chief Engineer of R100.
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1929
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Autumn ?: Shute moves into the St Leonards club in York and drives 20 miles to work each day.
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1929
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October: The government's R101 flies but performs poorly. It is dismantled to insert
extra gasbags and lengthened.
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1929
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November: World Economic Depression begins.
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1929
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November: R100 is finished.
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1929
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December 16: R100 Flies. Its Top speed is 81mph and it Cruises at 70mph. Performance is
above specifications.
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1929
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As Secretary of the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club, Shute hires Harry
Worrall as Instructor. Harry had been Alan Cobham's co-pilot. Shute admires
Harry tremendously and considers him an archetypal and ideal pilot. Shute
describes Harry glowingly in Slide Rule and his good points are mirrored in
The Rainbow and The Rose.
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1930
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January: Shute now has a Singer Coupe car.
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1930
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Early: Hessell Tiltman joins the R100 design staff from De Havillands.
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1930
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June: R100s tail is cut to correct a minor design fault.
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1930
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July 29: R100 leaves for Canada and arrives in Montreal in 78 hours with an average
speed of 42mph for 3,300 miles.
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1930
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Summer: Shute becomes engaged to Frances Mary Heaton. Frances is a doctor at York Hospital.
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1930
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August 16: (Saturday): R100 returns to Cardington and is put back in its hangar
never to fly again.
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1930
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October 03: Shute is warned by Sir Dennistoun Burney that the Airship Program may
not go ahead. Two days later this prophecy is vindicated.
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1930
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October 05 Sunday at 0210: The Government's R101 crashes in flames at Beauvais, France.
The airship program is now doomed.
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1930
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October: Shute waits hours in London streets with 500,000 others to see the R101
dead pass by. The R100 team are not invited to the funeral.
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1930
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November 01: Shute and all the R100 staff are given one month's notice.
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1930
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Autumn Shute and Tiltman discuss forming an aircraft company.
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1930
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December 11: R100 is deflated and "hung" in the shed.
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1930 - 31
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Winter: Shute starts writing "Lonely Road" in in the St Leonards Club, York
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1930 - 31
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Winter: Shute looks for backers for Airspeed.
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