The R100 had previously managed flights to and from Canada with Shute on board, but with airship development stalled, he moved on to aeroplane construction, founding his own company, Airspeed Ltd., in 1931. This was also the year he married Francis Heaton, with whom he later had two daughters. The company was eventually successful and his writing career also began to take off. War, however, intervened and in 1939 he joined the Navy as a Sub-Lieutenant, rising eventually to Lieutenant Commander. He worked in the Miscellaneous Weapons Department, something he very much enjoyed, before being co-opted by the Ministry of Information to cover the Normandy landings in 1944 and the Burma campaign in 1945.