CRICKET NIGHTS On the first night of the first test against South Africa I finally took my courage in my hands as started work on the Planet 1/72 resin kit of the Arsenal Delanne 10. I’d opened the box and gazed at the contents on several occasions but the scope of the problems to be…

The Sopwith Triplane was top dog in the skies over the Western Front in the final few months of 1917. Before its arrival the German Albatros D.III had been the best fighter over the Front but the superior manoeuverability of the Sopwith Triplane gave it the edge. By the end of 1917, however, the Triplane…

In the autumn of 1943 Japanese officials in Germany witnessed a demonstration of the Messerchmitt Me163 rocket interceptor but the technology seemed too advanced and different from Japanese capabilities to be of interest. However, in 1944 when American bombers were beginning to reach the Japanese homeland, the idea of a rapidly climbing interceptor was more…

Experiments into rocket propelled aeroplanes were conducted in Russia around the same time as in Germany and the Bereznyak-Isaev BI flew for the first time on 15 May 1942. It was perhaps the first rocket powered interceptor to fly but, unlike developments in Germany, it lacked the aerodynamic sophistication necessary for the new power plant…

(Development of the MiG Ye-152 began with the Ye-150, a technology demonstrator optimized as a short range interceptor with a single Turmansky R-15 engine of 10150kg thrust, possibly capable of intercepting the U-2s that the United States had begun flying over Russia. Only one Ye-150 was built and it flew for the first time in…

One of the things that makes going to Swap n Sells worthwhile is what you find lurking in the boxes of leftover stuff that dealers often have under their tables. You can’t get to them straight away because there are too many bodies pressed together trying to find bargains on the tables themselves, but later…