From little things big things grow -

Older folk will recall the Super Heroes from their youth. Each lived quietly behind an ‘alter ego’. The citizens of Metropolis had no idea that their humble Daily Planet reporter, Clark Kent, was actually ‘Superman’ - nor did the good people of Gotham

City realise that the socialite, Bruce Wayne was in fact, ‘Batman’.

It may come as some surprise, therefore, to learn  that living inconspicuously among us, here at SAAMBR, is none other than that fabled latter day Hero ‘Captain Underpants’.

His existence is attributed to George Beard who has been entertaining the latest generation with his exploits and who explained that our Hero was a native of an alien ‘Underpantyworld’ and gained his strength from a magic amulet. With this amulet lay the

strength of his people and protection for them all from a fatal allergy to ‘Starch’.

Care of this amulet was entrusted to their leader, ‘Big Daddy Long Johns’. Unfortunately, Big Daddy allowed his voracious baby boy, ‘Little Baby Underpants’ to play with this amulet, who swallowed it by mistake.

This left the citizens of Underpantyworld defenceless when attacked by an alien force of the ‘Wedgie Warlords’ who sprayed their planet with starch. Thus doomed, Big Daddy created a huge catapult from his underpants and to save his son from their

common fate,  rocketed ’Little Baby Underpants, into space whence he finally reached sanctuary on the planet Earth.

The rest, as they say, is History ……….

The German Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" was a single-seat, swept-wing fighter that was equally dangerous to both enemy bomber crews and its pilots alike. It first flew in 1941 but was introduced into the Luftwaffe in 1944. Despite its impressive performance,  the Me 163 was something of a tactical failure and came to a dead end with the development of jet-powered flight. Also, the idea of fast interceptors was soon to give way to ground-based homing/guided missile technology.
This new design used a volatile chemical explosion to power the small fighter at break-neck speeds and it was able to out fly escort fighters, of any bomber formation with ease.
The diminutive Me 163 was piloted by a single crewman housed under a wide clear canopy. The tail assembly was capped by a simple vertical tail fin lacking any horizontal planes. Take-off for the Me 163 was achieved using an unsprung "dolly" with the rocket motor at full thrust. The dolly was then jettisoned immediately after take-off, as it was counter to the aerodynamic design. The interceptor climbed to attack altitude, most likely using most of its fuel supply in the process. From its lofty perch, it could attack in a high-speed swoop on the bombers, engaging targets with cannon fire for as long as momentum allowed - maybe two or three dives could be managed. Once spent of both fuel and ammunition, the Komet glided to the ground , hopefully to land on a relatively smooth patch of earth atop its sprung centreline skid.

If you thought that the ‘Komet’ had been consigned to the pages of history, read on —      In a secluded aircraft workshop, disguised as a strawberry farm, a secret plan has been afoot to restore the deadly ME 163. This clandestine project was discovered when covert test flights broke their cover at Gibson Field.                                     This is an exclusive first hand report -