In a message dated 98-02-27 13:46:06 EST, riddleb@fhu.disa.mil (Bill Riddle)
writes

> Did anyone else recognize the name of the visiting engineer? Some of
> the most enjoyable fiction I have ever read were books by Nevil Shute.
> The most famous (and germane to this list) is “On the Beach.” His
> engineering expertise was apparent in his books.

Even more relevant — at least to this discussion — is his autobiography,
“Slide Rule”, which has an extensive discussion of the R100 vs R101
competition.

It should be noted that the R100 — the privately constructed version, built
to the same specifications, but not the same design, as the R101 — made a
round trip to Canada, with no particular problems. It was ordered scrapped
anyway after the R101 crash, which was seen by Shute (and many others ) as an
attempt to convince the British public that the R101 crashed because airships
were inherently unsafe, and not that the government had screwed up.

Mike Mullen