Short Stirling mega-bomber navigator has high adventures, repeatedly escaping from POW camps and evading throughout occupied Europe.

Basically this book is a cure for extreme boredom. The type of book you cant put down.

At the start the Stirling gets shot down and crash lands somewhere in continental Europe. From there the high adventure begins. Its based on a true story. It is basically an autobiography. The protagonist and author Richard B Pape was awarded a medal or two and later became upset that the Beatles were awarded the same medal.

The closest comparison I can make of this book to something well known today, would be its like the early 2000’s PC game: “Escape from Castle Wolfenstein” and the movie “The Great Escape” and maybe “Hogans Heros”.

Its a gritty book. As the forward text states This is not a ‘nice’ book.

I give it 10/10.

Actually I read the 1950’s original version, but it was completely re-written in the 1980’s and the 80’s version actually would be better, because Pape was able to include a great deal more detail in the later text. Since I read the original I’ll have to go back and read the newer one.

Also if you want to know more about Pape, read his obituary fron the 1990’s and also this excellent blog article:

Leyland P76 V8 powered Bf109

This is a great aircraft. The designer has incorporated a 1970’s Australian V8 powered muscle car engine into a three quarter scale Bf109 airframe.

The motor is audible in the clip and oh what a sweet sound!

You could do the same thing today with a more modern V8 – such as the 5.5 or 6 Litre motors in some Holden Commodores. Also if you wanted an inline engine I believe Ford may still produce those.

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Leyland P.76

The Leyland P.76 was a good design here is its Wikipedia page

It had an aluminium engine so would have been pretty light weight as far as big engines go.

The P.76’s aluminium V8 motor

This one obviously is souped up for drag racing but you get the idea it is a powerful car.

Also one is not limited to one warbird type – could go a Spitfire instead for example or a P40! And the more modern V8 motors are often equipped with superchargers or turbos and benefit from all the latest software and elextronics that will do many great things like adjusting mixture with atmospheric pressure.