When i was at school in the fifties and in the A.T.C. The first aircraft i ever flew in was an Airspeed Oxford from R.A.F. Wittering . We drew lots and i was lucky enough to get the co-pilots seat . He let me " fly " her for a while . Then when he retook control he demonstrated the stall . Hung on the straps we were ,what a thrill . Better than any roller coaster . Great video , keep them coming .
I almost missed this one, Nick. Glad I didn't! It brought back the memory of one of the rare times my Dad ever mentioned anything about the War. While he was in England, before being deployed to Europe, he made acquaintance with a young (weren't they ALL!) RAF pilot who needed to build time, and offered Dad a ride in the Oxford he was training in. allegedly this sort of thing was not endorsed by the authorities, and both received a rather stern lecture on their return to base. Fortunately, Dad survived both that and the war, passing in September 2010. Thanks for the memory prod!
An excellent and informative video. The design of this aircraft is a mixture of 2 different eras. The difference between pre-war to post-war in design and performance was massive, not only in design but performance too. As a kid I flew on a trip in an Avro Anson. I recall being allowed in the cockpit, the pilot flew with sliding side windows open!!
Really enjoyed your documentary, although It is sad how many aircraft were eventually lost in accidents. I did wonder what the single engine performance of the Envoy would have been.. those big round engines looked very draggy, especially if one had failed. We had a most entertaining time watching the "Q Planes" film, a ripping good yarn that one! Given the fact that the dastardly enemy already were making use of a "death ray" machine to bring down aircraft, I was amused that they were going to such desperate lengths to obtain a copy of an untested experimental supercharger!
Another nice history lesson Nick. In the first picture of the one in Oz, in the background is the Porterfield 35/70 with race number 25. It was owned by Reg Ansett who had the Porterfield concession in Australia. He entered it for the Melbourne-Brisbane (I think) air race (1938?). It's still around based at Toowoomba and owned by my friend Trevor Bange. The radial engine, probably a Le Blond, was replaced many years ago with a flat four. Not sure if it's still airworthy though.
Well observed, mainly because of all the different engine types used. I glossed over this fact, only because there’s another film on the way which explains why.
He also was the one who had a lot to do with the R -100 airship that the govt. seized the plans and immediately attempted to build an improved larger model ,the R-101 in direct competition. The R-100 worked perfectly but the R-101 ,well, history tells us what resulted in that little stunt.
@@michaelrussell5346 I like Shute very much but his account of the R101 debacle is not particularly accurate. However, many of the facts of the disaster did not come to light until decades later and he lost many friends in the crash; the bitterness is understandable.
G'day, Yay Team ! Any Channel posting a Video about Airspeed Aeroplanes gets my Subscription, with the Bell - and a Comment which lives up to my Channel Name...; because, Truth In Labelling...(?). I note that one of my 23 Playlists is called "Personal Aeroplanology..." And within that scroll you could well have quite the horrified Giggle at, "National Transportation Museum ; Visiting My First Aeroplane...!" ), So, Ooh, aaahhh - ya got me...! I discovered "Requiem for a WREN" in a cupboard at School in 1976, at age 15...; and it was the first Fiction Novel featuring Aeroplanes within the Plot which I'd ever encountered, that was unencumbered by any Aeronautical mistakes written into the Tale...! So you may well imagine my delight upon returning the fortuitously-encountered tome to the School Library, when I discovered the rest of their Shelf holding the Collected Works of Neville Shute Norway.... By dint of reading all 22 of them, as well as Eric Brown's "Wings On My Sleeve" discussing the finer points of Test Flying...; when I was 17, in 1978, what today is safely chained to the Museum's Ceiling took me for my first Solo..., and it's never been flown since. I did try, 3 months later ; but 500 miles north, 1,500 ft higher up, Midsummer Midday rather than a cool morning in Spring..., and last time I tried to fly it the (Nylon) Wheelhubs melted from spinning around the siezed Aluminium Bushes on the Steel Axles..., while failing to climb up into Ground Effect (!). Therefore, thus, and because - it survived to grace the ceiling of the Museum (!). And, then, in 1992 when I had not flown anything since 1982 when I spent a fortnight doing Ab-Initio on Blanik & IS-28 Sailplanes collecting my FAI Gliding A, B, & C Certificates & logging 15 hrs - half solo with the final solo being 2 hrs :03 min's...; guess who commenced 10 Hrs of Taxi-Tests & Slow and Fast Straight Runs & straight low Passes, before going over the Fence for the First Flight of a New Prototype - on which I'd redesigned the Undercarriage & Wing Trailing Edge Section while a friend was Scratch-building it..., then redesigned, pulled apart and reconstructed the Wing Leading Edges, designed and added an actually streamlined Fuselage-Pod (featuring Facetted Aerodynamics - it's easier to fabricate !), and I'd designed & laminated two different Wooden Propellers for it...., after I'd bought the not-completed Project for the collective purchase-prices of all the Materials he'd used to get that far .. The first 10 hrs running around on the ground preparing, and the first 5 hours of actual Test Flying - were done with my overpitched First Attempt at a For-Flight Airscrew..., ( I had previously already made 5 different Experimental laminated Wooden Wind Turbine Rotors, and prior to that..., 3 decorative Wall-Hanger Display "Propellers", back in the '70s. My experience is that if one reads NS Norway sufficiently avidly as a Teenager - then many things are possible. I read the Collected Works out aloud to my kids (we live Off Grid, no TV...) when they were in Primary School - as part of explaining the British Commonwealth & Empire which had Colon-ised Oz & therefore why the Society they were growing up in is the way it is - as their baseline for understanding what's going on. As a Teenager my son re-read the Collected Works. By the time he was 14 he'd paid for his second Chainsaw, with Firewood Sales... At 17 he was the youngest Deputy Captain elected in the NSW Volunteer Rural Fire Service, Senior Deputy at 23, full Brigade Captain at 24 - as well as being a founding member of the local RAFT (Remote Area Firefighting Team).., Mainstreet Business Proprietor at 25..., Group Officer at 30, married at 31, and now at 34 they keep bumping him to Acting Divisional Commander... Running 24 Tankers & Crews, 3 x AT-802 Firemasters (3,000 Hp Turboprop Waterbombers on Amphibious Floats), 6 Helitacks & 5 RAFTs....with a Chinnook's 10-Ton Bucket and a Large Air Tanker's 13 Tons of Retardant as his backups. When he was 25, his boss sold him the Auto-Electrical Workshop where he'd started as an Apprentice at 18 - Vendor Finance, 10 years ago. When he took in his first Apprentice I gave the kid copies of, "Trustee From The Tool Room." & "Round The Bend." & "Slide Rule" Telling them that their Boss had grown up reading those - so if they wanted to gain some insight into what he thinks is "Normal", then read these three, at least. The first 'prentice didn't read them because they were Books, he only read things on screen...; and he left after 3 months, leaving the books in the Tea Room. The second 'prentice didn't read them either, because he read nothing - ever ; and he too left the Books in the Tea Room. The 3rd 'Prentice read the Books, slowly - but he did do it. ..., & he showed the books to his parents ; and though they'd been separated for years, they both read them - and became Shute-ists, scouring the second-hand Bookstores to put together their collections of the 22 Published Works.... The third kid finished his time and emerged with a Trade...(!). I've got a pretty funny "take" on a few things Aeronautical, posted in that Scroll ; you could have a lot of fun therein. Thanks again for posting. Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe! ;-p Ciao !
@@FlyingForFunTrecanair Excellent ! Yeah, in about ,1986 the Hippies on the local Commune upgraded me from "Windmill Chris" or ""Chris Windmills", To "Chris Warblesonalot", and the Faction which can't handle my Soundtrack are said to have replied..., "Ah, yes, I see ; but the trouble is that sometimes Chris Warbles On Entirely Too Much...! I live 50 Km from there, but am accorded Amicus Curiae Tribal Elder status...; they didn't start moving onto their 3,500 Acres until 1980/'81, but in '76 at age 15 during my shuttling to & from Boarding-School (500 miles each way) on the Train, 3 times Return annually - I met the (then) mid-20s yr-old lady who was returning from Sydney after declaring her intent to form a Holding Company (Chamba Na Munga Pty Ltd - or "Chomp On A Mungbean" as they like to mock themselves !) to raise the Capital with which to buy "Wytaliba" a flogged-out Cattle-Grazing property. And, we met several times every year, and by '78 when I finished School she'd formed the Company and they were negotiating the process. 3 days ago I was down there for a funeral, after a 60 yr-old grandmother rolled & crashed her car in the Paddock - cavorting for fun when something went wrong. I met her in about 1986, and there were about a hundred & fifty or two hundred people gathered together 50 Km out of town for her funeral. Cheri Bell's Grand Plan has turned out quite well. A founding member of the Community was the Midwife officiating at my son's elective homebirth - I'm a retired RGN, but Women should be in charge of Childbirth in my opinion... Later on she stood (as a Green...) for Election in the local Town Council, winning 2 Terms - and our Councillors elect their own Mayor, and so "Squirrel" was thus Mayor of my hometown for about 4 years. The Hippies are my Peer Group, but I'm not sufficiently sociable as to live there ; so I visit for Markets, Parties, Festivals, Funerals, and to visit friends. The Endangered Species Sanctuary I pay the Rates to live within is pretty much equidistant between the Hippie Commune on the Old Glen Innes to Grafton Road, and "Danthonia" - a Farming/Grazing property halfway between Glen Innes & Inverell which the "Bruderhoffen" bought about 25 years ago and set up a Christian-Fundamentalist Community sort of like Amish but they drive Cars and only hang out among themselves. Funded from their "Mother Church" back in the USA, where they settled and became prosperous after fleeing Religious persecution in Germany. And, the Cherry on top of it all is that about 6 months after labelling the YT Channel with the then 28 yr-old Nickname..., the son of a local Tribal Elder told my daughter that my Aboriginal Name is "...'Ave A Chat !" Two separate groups of Social Fringe-Dwellers have given me Labels which are humerous, honest, benign, and they mesh with each other to the point of Dove-Tailing...(!). I reckon that's not too bad of an achievement, for the local Fool On The Hill to have pulled off (?) ! Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
His narrative style is without any poetic embellishment, and presents only the important parts of the subject without leaving out necessary detail. Always a pleasure to re read his works.
@@michaelrussell5346 G'day, I was a 1961-vintage... My mother was 24 & my father was 52..., and she busily reflected his Worldview - mirroring that of her parents who'd been in their 40's when she was born... So Neville Shute's Novels..., beginning with Stories of Aviation in Britain in about 1923 - offer something of a Window into the Society to which (at a Provincial Imperial Colonial level) my father's generation aspired to belong...; when he left High School to work in his father's Coachbuilding Workshop at the age of 14...., and Shute kept on writing until I was 2. So, when I discovered the stash of his Collected Works at age 15...; it was a nice (if Bowdlerised...) illumination of what the Society in which I grew up had THOUGHT they were doing, when they all CHOSE to vote to Re-Arm, to Fight the Second Great Patriotic World War to End All Waaauughhh(!), then to stage the Cold War, while fighting Superpower Proxy Wars, while preparing to fight the Multi-Strike Atomic ThermoNukeYouLater Third Great Patriotic World Waaauughhh(!) To End ALL Waauuughhh(!)s.... As the only child of the town's Odd Couple...; a Brady-Bunch Following my mother's Predecessor having died from Cancer & the Old Man remarrying... At age 11 on being shipped out to Boarding School, I was bewildered...; Reading Norway masquerading as Shute at least have me a Frame of Reference against which to Consider the Nature of the surrounding Observed Reality... At least the bit whereinat I grew up, and still do reside... Not that I agree with a lot of the stuff which Shute wrote as if they were unquestionable Bedrock Truths - ordained by Godtheory ; like England's "Right".... To fight to conquer and acquire an Empire, thereinat to sack and pillage, and enslave the local Population ; the better to Enrich the Imperial Homeland, And for the generalised greater Convenience of the Ruling, Landholding, Share-owning, and Governing Classes of the Realm.... And, as a Boomerang-Carver I would have to say that he certainly missed quite a lot (!). In my "Aboriginal Technology..." Playlist, The Video, "Boomerang Aerophysics - "Autorotating, Gyroscopically-Stabilised & Guided Rotary-Wing Sailplanes ; Design Analysis & History...". Will go a long way towards unpacking that (!). But I can thoroughly recommend reading Nevil Shute Norway's Collected Works to young Children, in order to set a few Acceptable Defaults into their developing Worldview, Regarding personal morals and Ethics, while trying to Fit In..., AND to Get Ahead...(!). It worked for me, And for my kids. Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
When i was at school in the fifties and in the A.T.C. The first aircraft i ever flew in was an Airspeed Oxford from R.A.F. Wittering . We drew lots and i was lucky enough to get the co-pilots seat . He let me " fly " her for a while . Then when he retook control he demonstrated the stall . Hung on the straps we were ,what a thrill . Better than any roller coaster . Great video , keep them coming .
Excellent post - highly informative!
I almost missed this one, Nick. Glad I didn't! It brought back the memory of one of the rare times my Dad ever mentioned anything about the War. While he was in England, before being deployed to Europe, he made acquaintance with a young (weren't they ALL!) RAF pilot who needed to build time, and offered Dad a ride in the Oxford he was training in. allegedly this sort of thing was not endorsed by the authorities, and both received a rather stern lecture on their return to base. Fortunately, Dad survived both that and the war, passing in September 2010. Thanks for the memory prod!
What a terrific story!
Thank you for doing these very interesting programs. I'm very happy that I found you while surfing You Tube. Best, Andy K
Thank you, more on the way. I try to post a film every week although it's not always possible.
Good looking aircraft.
Yes, the Envoy and the Courier were both very stylish machines.
An excellent and informative video. The design of this aircraft is a mixture of 2 different eras. The difference between pre-war to post-war in design and performance was massive, not only in design but performance too. As a kid I flew on a trip in an Avro Anson. I recall being allowed in the cockpit, the pilot flew with sliding side windows open!!
I used to fly the Rapide with the sliding down triangular windows open in the summer, it was a bit too much of a greenhouse otherwise.
Lovely machine, such a pity there are no surviving examples.
Thank you for bringing to light another long gone beautiful vintage machine!
My pleasure, more on the way 👍
Short Brothers began their aircraft manufacturing career on the Isle of Sheppey Kent , initially at Shellness and later Eastchurch.
@@jameswebb4593 Quite possibly, although this film is about an Airspeed product.
How very interesting Nick many thanks. Chris in Devon.
Thanks, more on the way.
Really enjoyed your documentary, although It is sad how many aircraft were eventually lost in accidents. I did wonder what the single engine performance of the Envoy would have been.. those big round engines looked very draggy, especially if one had failed.
We had a most entertaining time watching the "Q Planes" film, a ripping good yarn that one! Given the fact that the dastardly enemy already were making use of a "death ray" machine to bring down aircraft, I was amused that they were going to such desperate lengths to obtain a copy of an untested experimental supercharger!
I intend to watch the whole film tomorrow, it’s a recent discovery for me 🙂
Nice aircraft
Another fascinating piece of aviation history. Smithy's Southern Cross is on display not far from me at Brisbane Airport 👍🇦🇺
Smithy’s an interesting character for sure 👍
Another nice history lesson Nick. In the first picture of the one in Oz, in the background is the Porterfield 35/70 with race number 25. It was owned by Reg Ansett who had the Porterfield concession in Australia. He entered it for the Melbourne-Brisbane (I think) air race (1938?). It's still around based at Toowoomba and owned by my friend Trevor Bange. The radial engine, probably a Le Blond, was replaced many years ago with a flat four. Not sure if it's still airworthy though.
That’s interesting; that particular Envoy will appear in another film soon as it was used for engine test flying 👍
It seems like they went back and forth a lot between different engine cowl designs.
Well observed, mainly because of all the different engine types used. I glossed over this fact, only because there’s another film on the way which explains why.
Neville Norway was Neville Shute, the famous novelist.
That is well known on this channel 👍
He also was the one who had a lot to do with the R -100 airship that the govt. seized the plans and immediately attempted to build an improved larger model ,the R-101 in direct competition. The R-100 worked perfectly but the R-101 ,well, history tells us what resulted in that little stunt.
@@michaelrussell5346 The real story is quite different to your account.
@@FlyingForFunTrecanair yes , I read the book by Neville Shute about 40 years ago and his personal account, as I remember, was quite bitter .
@@michaelrussell5346 I like Shute very much but his account of the R101 debacle is not particularly accurate. However, many of the facts of the disaster did not come to light until decades later and he lost many friends in the crash; the bitterness is understandable.
G'day,
Yay Team !
Any Channel posting a Video about Airspeed Aeroplanes gets my Subscription, with the Bell - and a Comment which lives up to my Channel Name...; because,
Truth In Labelling...(?).
I note that one of my 23 Playlists is called
"Personal Aeroplanology..."
And within that scroll you could well have quite the horrified Giggle at,
"National Transportation Museum ; Visiting My First Aeroplane...!" ),
So,
Ooh, aaahhh - ya got me...!
I discovered
"Requiem for a WREN" in a cupboard at School in 1976, at age 15...; and it was the first Fiction Novel featuring Aeroplanes within the Plot which I'd ever encountered, that was unencumbered by any Aeronautical mistakes written into the Tale...!
So you may well imagine my delight upon returning the fortuitously-encountered tome to the School Library, when I discovered the rest of their Shelf holding the Collected Works of Neville Shute Norway....
By dint of reading all 22 of them, as well as Eric Brown's "Wings On My Sleeve" discussing the finer points of Test Flying...; when I was 17, in 1978, what today is safely chained to the Museum's Ceiling took me for my first Solo..., and it's never been flown since. I did try, 3 months later ; but 500 miles north, 1,500 ft higher up, Midsummer Midday rather than a cool morning in Spring..., and last time I tried to fly it the (Nylon) Wheelhubs melted from spinning around the siezed Aluminium Bushes on the Steel Axles..., while failing to climb up into Ground Effect (!).
Therefore, thus, and because - it survived to grace the ceiling of the Museum (!).
And, then, in 1992 when I had not flown anything since 1982 when I spent a fortnight doing Ab-Initio on Blanik & IS-28 Sailplanes collecting my FAI Gliding A, B, & C Certificates & logging 15 hrs - half solo with the final solo being 2 hrs :03 min's...; guess who commenced 10 Hrs of Taxi-Tests & Slow and Fast Straight Runs & straight low Passes, before going over the Fence for the First Flight of a New Prototype - on which I'd redesigned the Undercarriage & Wing Trailing Edge Section while a friend was Scratch-building it..., then redesigned, pulled apart and reconstructed the Wing Leading Edges, designed and added an actually streamlined Fuselage-Pod (featuring Facetted Aerodynamics - it's easier to fabricate !), and I'd designed & laminated two different Wooden Propellers for it...., after I'd bought the not-completed Project for the collective purchase-prices of all the Materials he'd used to get that far ..
The first 10 hrs running around on the ground preparing, and the first 5 hours of actual Test Flying - were done with my overpitched First Attempt at a For-Flight Airscrew..., ( I had previously already made 5 different Experimental laminated Wooden Wind Turbine Rotors, and prior to that..., 3 decorative Wall-Hanger Display "Propellers", back in the '70s.
My experience is that if one reads NS Norway sufficiently avidly as a Teenager - then many things are possible.
I read the Collected Works out aloud to my kids (we live Off Grid, no TV...) when they were in Primary School - as part of explaining the British Commonwealth & Empire which had Colon-ised Oz & therefore why the Society they were growing up in is the way it is - as their baseline for understanding what's going on.
As a Teenager my son re-read the Collected Works.
By the time he was 14 he'd paid for his second Chainsaw, with Firewood Sales... At 17 he was the youngest Deputy Captain elected in the NSW Volunteer Rural Fire Service, Senior Deputy at 23, full Brigade Captain at 24 - as well as being a founding member of the local RAFT (Remote Area Firefighting Team).., Mainstreet Business Proprietor at 25..., Group Officer at 30, married at 31, and now at 34 they keep bumping him to Acting Divisional Commander... Running 24 Tankers & Crews, 3 x AT-802 Firemasters (3,000 Hp Turboprop Waterbombers on Amphibious Floats), 6 Helitacks & 5 RAFTs....with a Chinnook's 10-Ton Bucket and a Large Air Tanker's 13 Tons of Retardant as his backups.
When he was 25, his boss sold him the Auto-Electrical Workshop where he'd started as an Apprentice at 18 - Vendor Finance, 10 years ago.
When he took in his first Apprentice I gave the kid copies of,
"Trustee From The Tool Room." &
"Round The Bend."
&
"Slide Rule"
Telling them that their Boss had grown up reading those - so if they wanted to gain some insight into what he thinks is
"Normal", then read these three, at least.
The first 'prentice didn't read them because they were Books, he only read things on screen...; and he left after 3 months, leaving the books in the Tea Room.
The second 'prentice didn't read them either, because he read nothing - ever ; and he too left the Books in the Tea Room.
The 3rd 'Prentice read the Books, slowly - but he did do it. ..., & he showed the books to his parents ; and though they'd been separated for years, they both read them - and became Shute-ists, scouring the second-hand Bookstores to put together their collections of the 22 Published Works....
The third kid finished his time and emerged with a Trade...(!).
I've got a pretty funny "take" on a few things Aeronautical, posted in that Scroll ; you could have a lot of fun therein.
Thanks again for posting.
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe!
;-p
Ciao !
You certainly live up to your name! Thanks for posting, I’m a Shute fan too and hope to include more NSN content in the future.
@@FlyingForFunTrecanair
Excellent !
Yeah, in about ,1986 the Hippies on the local Commune upgraded me from
"Windmill Chris" or ""Chris Windmills",
To
"Chris Warblesonalot", and the
Faction which can't handle my Soundtrack are said to have replied...,
"Ah, yes, I see ; but the trouble is that sometimes Chris Warbles On Entirely Too Much...!
I live 50 Km from there, but am accorded Amicus Curiae Tribal Elder status...; they didn't start moving onto their 3,500 Acres until 1980/'81, but in '76 at age 15 during my shuttling to & from Boarding-School (500 miles each way) on the Train, 3 times Return annually - I met the (then) mid-20s yr-old lady who was returning from Sydney after declaring her intent to form a Holding Company (Chamba Na Munga Pty Ltd - or "Chomp On A Mungbean" as they like to mock themselves !) to raise the Capital with which to buy
"Wytaliba" a flogged-out Cattle-Grazing property.
And, we met several times every year, and by '78 when I finished School she'd formed the Company and they were negotiating the process.
3 days ago I was down there for a funeral, after a 60 yr-old grandmother rolled & crashed her car in the Paddock - cavorting for fun when something went wrong.
I met her in about 1986, and there were about a hundred & fifty or two hundred people gathered together 50 Km out of town for her funeral.
Cheri Bell's Grand Plan has turned out quite well.
A founding member of the Community was the Midwife officiating at my son's elective homebirth - I'm a retired RGN, but Women should be in charge of Childbirth in my opinion... Later on she stood (as a Green...) for Election in the local Town Council, winning 2 Terms - and our Councillors elect their own Mayor, and so "Squirrel" was thus Mayor of my hometown for about 4 years.
The Hippies are my Peer Group, but I'm not sufficiently sociable as to live there ; so I visit for Markets, Parties, Festivals, Funerals, and to visit friends.
The Endangered Species Sanctuary I pay the Rates to live within is pretty much equidistant between the Hippie Commune on the Old Glen Innes to Grafton Road, and "Danthonia" - a Farming/Grazing property halfway between Glen Innes & Inverell which the "Bruderhoffen" bought about 25 years ago and set up a Christian-Fundamentalist Community sort of like Amish but they drive Cars and only hang out among themselves. Funded from their "Mother Church" back in the USA, where they settled and became prosperous after fleeing Religious persecution in Germany.
And, the Cherry on top of it all is that about 6 months after labelling the YT Channel with the then 28 yr-old Nickname..., the son of a local Tribal Elder told my daughter that my
Aboriginal Name is
"...'Ave A Chat !"
Two separate groups of Social Fringe-Dwellers have given me Labels which are humerous, honest, benign, and they mesh with each other to the point of
Dove-Tailing...(!).
I reckon that's not too bad of an achievement, for the local Fool On The Hill to have pulled off (?) !
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
His narrative style is without any poetic embellishment, and presents only the important parts of the subject without leaving out necessary detail.
Always a pleasure to re read his works.
@@michaelrussell5346
G'day,
I was a 1961-vintage...
My mother was 24 & my father was 52..., and she busily reflected his Worldview - mirroring that of her parents who'd been in their 40's when she was born...
So Neville Shute's Novels..., beginning with Stories of Aviation in Britain in about 1923 - offer something of a Window into the Society to which (at a Provincial Imperial Colonial level) my father's generation aspired to belong...; when he left High School to work in his father's Coachbuilding Workshop at the age of 14...., and Shute kept on writing until I was 2.
So, when I discovered the stash of his Collected Works at age 15...; it was a nice (if Bowdlerised...) illumination of what the Society in which I grew up had THOUGHT they were doing, when they all CHOSE to vote to Re-Arm, to Fight the Second Great Patriotic World War to End All Waaauughhh(!), then to stage the Cold War, while fighting Superpower Proxy Wars, while preparing to fight the Multi-Strike Atomic ThermoNukeYouLater
Third Great Patriotic World Waaauughhh(!)
To End ALL
Waauuughhh(!)s....
As the only child of the town's
Odd Couple...; a Brady-Bunch
Following my mother's
Predecessor having died from
Cancer & the Old Man remarrying...
At age 11 on being shipped out to Boarding School, I was bewildered...;
Reading Norway masquerading as
Shute at least have me a
Frame of Reference against which to
Consider the Nature of the surrounding
Observed Reality...
At least the bit whereinat I grew up, and still do reside...
Not that I agree with a lot of the stuff which Shute wrote as if they were unquestionable Bedrock Truths - ordained by Godtheory ; like England's
"Right"....
To fight to conquer and acquire an
Empire, thereinat to sack and pillage, and enslave the local Population ; the better to
Enrich the
Imperial Homeland,
And for the generalised greater
Convenience of the
Ruling,
Landholding, Share-owning, and
Governing
Classes of the
Realm....
And, as a Boomerang-Carver I would have to say that he certainly missed quite a lot (!).
In my
"Aboriginal Technology..."
Playlist,
The Video,
"Boomerang Aerophysics -
"Autorotating, Gyroscopically-Stabilised & Guided
Rotary-Wing Sailplanes ; Design Analysis & History...".
Will go a long way towards unpacking that (!).
But I can thoroughly recommend reading Nevil Shute Norway's Collected Works to young Children, in order to set a few
Acceptable Defaults into their developing Worldview,
Regarding personal morals and
Ethics, while trying to
Fit In...,
AND to
Get Ahead...(!).
It worked for me,
And for my kids.
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !