'No Highway' is a chilling indictment of airliner safety, made very topical in its time for being predictive of the disasters that would befall the deHavilland Comet Mk 1 airliner in the mid-1950's. The aircraft in question is called a Rutland Reindeer, which immediately raises the comparison with the Comet, as 'Comet' was one of the 12 reindeer that traditionally pull Father Christmas' / Santa Claus' sleigh on christmas night.

The Anti-hero of the story is Dr. Honey, a recently widowed worker at the RAe , Farnborough, engaged in fatigue research on aluminium airframes. His current project, overseen by the new director, a young Aeronauticist Dr. Scott, is to investigate possible failure in a high aspect ratio tailplane of a new airliner, the Rutland Reindeer. The pace oof events are narrated by Scott, in the third person, and so makes for a fascinating story, which keeps the reader interested.

Dr. Honey has worked out, with a revolutionary theory related to quantum mechanics, that it is possible that an alloy structure will fail well before a certain industry standard tolerance, and the metal at the root of the tailplane will fatigue with a crystalline fracture. While for Dr. Honey this seems merely to be an esoteric problem of pure science, to Dr. Scott it is a disaster of first magnitude, as Reindeers are flying across the Atlantic daily, carrying hundereds of passengers. The disclosure is made all the more alarming at the recent loss of a Reindeer whose total flying hours were quite close to Honey's estimate.

Honey is sent to recover the missing pieces of Reindeer over Canada (Canada is the Northern American land of dreams for Nevil Shute, as he visited there in the 1930's onboard R-100), but in the process he attempts to ground the Reindeer carrying him over. Lacking the heroic mold, Honey achieves this through undercarriage sabotage ! In so doing, and in flight by panicking and yet remaining persuasive and sincere, he makes deep impressions on two very lovely women, the heroines of the play, Marjorie Corder, airline hostess with C.A.T.O (Commonewealth Atlantic Transport Organisation), and Monica Teasdale, a middle echelon Hollywood actress, who accepts advice from a distraugh Honey after a confidence akin to hero worship combined with shared love of her work is given onboard the soon-to-be stricken Reindeer over the atlantic. Fears and doubt are also placed in the captain's mind, who knew the captain of the recently stricken Reindeer.

Honey is recalled by the RAe after the disaster with the Reindeer. It turns out he has a daughter, Elspeth, who has come to harm on being left alone in Honey's rather dingy and badly looked after home in Farndon, near his work. Elspeth confirms bad feelings Mrs. Scott, Dr Scott's wife and local school teacher has had regarding the state of Honey's home life. Elspeth displays a touching mix of precocity, and serious intelligence. Honey's hobbies of spritiualism and interest in furute prophecy fill her mind, but it is a mind temperd with serious thought and childhood happiness in simple things.

Miss Teasdale arrives, and passes on Honey's message to the Head of Departments of the RAe , along with Dr. Scott. She then promptly helps in looking after Elspeth. she leaves, as she finds she cannot accept the responsibilities. Marjorie Corder next makes her appearance, and gives us more detail of Honey's escapades in Gander, and of his information to be passed to Dr. Scott, and Elspeth.

Afterwards Honey returns, but by this time Dr. Scott is away to Canada to fetch the tailplane roots. In the meantime, the Russians have removed the other available one, to Scott's near ruin. Honey comes to the rescue, but in a highly unorthodox way, which also shocks Corder : He puts his daughter into light trance, which to Corder's shock, Elspeth has clearly done before. Using a planchette and automatic writing, a message is written - 'Under the Foot of the Bear'. The Head of the Departments naturally refuses to send it, and heated exchange follows. The Head naturally points out that the bear might be russia - and the RAe already knows about this loss of material. With corder's help, Honey manages to still pass the message along to Scott in the Canadian woods, with the co-operation of the Pilot of the Reindeer that Honey struck at Gander, who naughtiliy delivers the message with an illegal low altitude overflight of a Reindeer ! Scott in due course finds the taiplane, whic solves a number of mysteries including the unexplained loss of contact before the crash. It vindicates Honey, and makes him a minor hero. And his early warning has also allowed for a redesgn in early time by the manufacturers, ensuring no loss of service of the Reindeers over the Atlantic.