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1921 |
| Oxford Summer Holidays 1921 : 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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Alan Cobham when he was aeroplane hire service manager at deHavilland's. In 1921 Shute meets (later Sir) Alan Cobham (1893 - 1973) at de Havillands when Cobham is engaged as 2nd Test Pilot. ( PAF ) |
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1922 |
| The small De Havilland outfit at Stag Lane aerodrome when Shute worked there in 1922. ( DHB / AB ) |
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deHavilland Air Taxi pilots Hubert Broad and Walter Hope. Shute mentions Hubert Broad and Alan Cobham and others as pilots he used as inspiration for his early pilot characters. Shute flew with Hubert Broad as observer on test flights whilst working at deHavilland. ( PAF ) |
| Mentioned in Slide Rule, this DH9C deHavilland air taxi, G-EBDD, was a converted WW1 light bomber. The name of the air taxi aircraft that Stenning crashes in the beginning of Marazan is not mentioned but I feel safe suggesting that this is the type of machine, if not the very machine, Shute was thinking of when he wrote it. ( PAF ) |
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| Early 1922 : Shute's fiancé 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. |
| Summer 1922 : Shute graduates from Oxford with a 3rd Class Honours Degree in Engineering. |
| Summer 1922 : Spends a month cruising with friends. |
| Summer 1922 : Shute holidays in Bordighera, Italy with his parents. He writes his first short story. It is never published. |
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Shute states that in 1922 he wrote his first unpublished short story while in Italy on holiday. Kept among his papers is a short story called "Piuro" which has fictional characters but climaxes with a historically true landslide in Italy in 1618 that buried a town. It is quite possible that this is that first short story. This illustration from 1635 shows before and after scenes of the destroyed town of Piuro. ( OU ) |
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1923 |
| January 1923 : Shute joins de Havillands. |
| Early 1923 : Shute moves to 29 Stag Lane Edgeware Middlesex. |
| 29 Stag Lane (now numbered as # 62) Edgeware, Middlesex where Shute lives from early 1923 to late 1924 while working at nearby De Havillands. He writes Stephen Morris here in the evenings. (Photo: AB 2003) |
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| 1923 : Shute writes "Stephen Morris" in his spare time. |
| Spring 1923 : 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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In 1923 Shute learns to fly on an Avro 504. Pictured is a similar Avro 504. ( OU ) |
| Shute's Pilot's License. (Photo: DT 1999) |
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On July 10 1923 Mr and Mrs Norway buy this house off the Portsmouth Road near Petersfield. They own it until September 29 1927. The proximity to Petersfield probably leads Shute to meet Flora Twort. (Photo: DDT 2002) |
| September 1923 : Mentioned in Slide Rule, this DH9C deHavilland air taxi, G-EBDD, was a converted WW1 light bomber. The name of the air taxi aircraft that Stenning crashes in the beginning of Marazan is not mentioned but I feel safe suggesting that this is the type of machine, if not the very machine, Shute was thinking of when he wrote it. ( PAF ) |
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September 1923 :
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The prototype DH53 deHavilland Hummingbird is seen here before having its registration numbers, G-EBXH painted on. A version of the Hummingbird was created to fly from and to the British airship R-33. Shute designed the propeller. ( PAF |
| In 1923 Shute designs the 4 foot long (120CM) propeller for the small De Havilland DH53 Hummingbird which was built for The 1923 Daily Mail trials at Lympne. Alan Cobham, flying the frustratingly slow Hummingbird into a headwind, was once overtaken by a train. ( OU ) |
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| The much-expanded DeHavilland Stag Lane factory in 1923. ( PAF ) |
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