R101 would generate favourable publicity for the airship programme. The final trial flight of R101 was originally scheduled for 26 September 1930, but high winds delayed the move from the shed until 1 October. That evening, R101 slipped the mast for its only trial flight before setting off for India. This lasted 16 hours 51 minutes and was undertaken under near-ideal weather conditions; because of the failure of the oil cooler in one engine, it was not possible to carry out full speed trials. The flight was curtailed because of the need to prepare the airship for the flight to India.
The Way to the Stars did not regret her own marriage in spite of her husband's death. Hollis, who has formed a platonic relationship with Toddy, is killed while crash-landing a damaged returning bomber rather than bail out and risk it crashing into the village. During the war, Rattigan served in the Royal Air Force as a tail gunner, and used his wartime experiences to help inspire his earlier stage play, "Flare Path". In 1945, he was released from the service to help rewrite it with Anatole De Grunwald as a film screenplay of "The Way to the Stars". Although Michael Redgrave and John Mills