The dirty truth behind warplane books

Hungarian super-fighters, Pussy Riot in World War II and other things that go bang in the night sky

So, I’ve been hard at work on The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes, if scatty coffee drinking and mass delegation of tasks can be called ‘hard work’. Self-doubt is a great displacement activity. I sit with a Sharpie and paper. I make notes about the book: Is it funny enough? Is it technical enough? Is the fact-checking thorough? Are the photographs and illustrations as beautiful as they could be? Is the editorial mix right? Should it be the book I dreamed of owning as a 12-year-old or something new? Something more sophisticated? Evening comes. I pour a glass of wine and do some deep research into escape systems. One of the many unlikely aspects in the history of ejections eats was the Hungarian contribution. In 1943, the Hungarian Aviation Technology Institute developed an extremely advanced fighter aircraft. It adopted a push-pull configuration, which gives the power of two engines with the frontal cross section of one (it was more famously adopted its contemporary, the Dornier Do 335). The aircraft was a twin-boom heavy design. sometimes called the Marton RMI-8 X-V or XV-01. The abundance of whirring propellers in unlikely places would have made escape hazardous so a spring-loaded ejection seat was fitted (note this a good few years before US and British aircraft had such seats). The sole prototype was bombed in 1944 before the seat had been tested.

I announced a competition a few weeks ago to choose a slogan to be featured on an artwork of a Soviet fighter. Out of some brilliant suggestions I chose Pussy Riot, or rather the transliterated Пусси Райот. A close runner-up was омой меня or ‘wash me’. The winner entry was by Stephen Caulfield, an Ontario-based man who has been writing for Hush-Kit for a long time, though this is not the reason he won.

Haven’t quite decided on the name of the P.1214-3 yet, so you still have a chance to name this stunning Bae supersonic attack aircraft as it will feature in the book. You can put your suggestions in the comment section here.