Page "Airspeed Ltd." Paragraph 4

According to Nevil Shute Norway it was a very advanced engine ( and the price struck Shute as low ; much lower than competing engines on the basis of power-to-weight ratio ), so its loss was a major disaster for Airspeed ( and Britain ).

But when he asked Lord Nuffield to retain the engine, Nuffield said " I tell you, Norway ...

I sent that I. T. P.

thing back to them, and I told them they could put it where the monkey put the nuts!

" Shute wrote that the loss of the Wolseley engine due to the over-cautious high civil servants of the Air Ministry was a great loss to Britain.

Shute said that " admitting Air Ministry methods of doing business ... would be like introducing a maggot into an apple ..

Better to stick to selling motor vehicles for cash to the War Office and the Admiralty who retained the normal methods of buying and selling.