This is a new book from Steve Ginter's superb collection of aviation titles. This time it is the XP-81 that gets his detailed treatment. Typical of his books, it is a mixture of historical background and photographs. I'd have to say that he has found just about every photo of the plane still around to include in this volume.

The XP-81 was built to be an escort fighter that would be able to keep up with the bomber force and still be able to combat enemy planes once over the target. This resulted in the idea to combine a turboprop for cruise and a turbojet to provide additional performance during combat. One result was the XP-81.

Needless to say, there were problems with the turboprop such that the aircraft was never developed past the prototypes. Amazingly, both were still extant in the 1990s, being used on the Edwards bombing range. They have since been recovered and it is hoped to restore at least one airframe.

Steve's book also includes a small modeler's section and he was kind enough to include my build of the Anigrand kit and one of a K/R vacuform. I won't bug him too much about misspelling my name, if he'll put MM on his list of places to send new review books!

Anyway, it really is a superb reference and one that you should really pick up when you see it.  Builders of either model kit need to put this on their MUST HAVE list.  Recommended without reservation.

January 2007

My thanks to Steve Ginter for providing the review copy

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