More than seventy years after it was first asked, the question remains: what happened to British Royal Air Force Sergeant Dennis Copping and his airplane?  During a routine flight in 1946, Copping   crash landed in a Egyptian desert. Although  evidence suggests that he stayed with the airplane for some  time  after landing,Copping  has not been seen  since  1946. Kityhawk down  by Jonathan Nicholas  attempts to unravel the mystery of what actually happened to Copping  and his airplane. However the book really  reads more like an autobiography with  the author  providing a first person account of  the events and experiences leading up to his crash. 

The book has  many thrilling and emotional stories about Copping’s   time in the Royal Air Force. There are the exciting moments when Coping experiences the thrill of flying airplanes for the first time. There are also spine  tingling tales about battles that include narrow  escapes from german fighters .  The book does not shy away from the harsh realities of war like violence  death,homesickness and  loneliness. 

This book had a great plot that really drew me in. However, I would still like to know where Denis' Copping  went after the war and why he  has not been seen.  Nicholas  does give a few hints on his whereabouts but I was hoping  for a more complete answer. Nicholas  inability to complete th\is  puzzle left me hanging 

However, I still thought this was a very  captivating book that I would recommend to anyone.  History buffs would  especially enjoy it.

Dennis Copping & the plane he was flying ET574 went missing somewhere over the desert in 1942.
This novel is about Dennis & his fellow pilots, written with compassion & empathy by Jonathan Nicholas. The writer has certainly done his research & knows more than a thing or two about the planes they flew & the enemy that attacked them relentlessly during the desperate months of the campaign to halt the advance of Rommel.
This isn't a novel about victors or vanquished, it recounts in merciless detail all the squalid filth of daily life in the desert, but also the amazing camaderie of those young men who had to watch as their friends died one by one & had to wonder if they would be next. 
The beauty of the book is in the detail & the battle to retain humanity in the heart during the horrors of war.
Seventy years later ET574 was finally found but the mystery of what happened to Dennis has not been solved.

This is an account of what might've/could've happened to RAF pilot D. Copping.... & is actually very good! It begins when a plane was found in 2012 in a desert in Egypt, & then goes back in time to tell of this young man's journey of entering the RAF , his pilot training, & then deployment to N. Africa in 1940. It tells of the daily lives of those pilots & crews, during those early WWII years. Also tells a lot about the different 'aeroplanes' that the RAF used over that time period & place.
I really liked that at the beginning of the book, during the 2012 part.....the wording was like modern day vernacular, then when it went to the 1940's part...the wording went to the vernacular of that time period...... you knew right away that you were in a different time period! They had to deal with many of the same issues as we do today, but talked/used different wording......that aspect really put the reader in the right place/time. A very good epilogue also, telling about what happened at the end of 1942.
I rounded up my rating to reward the easy educational aspect of this book, as I learned quite a bit myself...even my being an avid history reader! If you like WWII or military history, this is an easy, good read. I did receive an e-ARC of the book from The Book Guild via NetGalley, in return for reading it & offering my own fair/honest review.

Kittyhawk Down, by Jonathan Nicholas, is the dramatized story about the doomed final flight byFlight Sergeant Dennis Topping of the RAF in a damaged P-40 Kittyhawk airplane.  In June, 1942, Topping was flying between two British airfields in Egypt for repairs and maintenance. The Kittyhawk disappeared, only to be found 70 years later by Polish oil workers in a remote area of the Sahara Desert.   Taking these true facts as the structural bones of a story, we follow Sergeant Topping’s story training as a flyer in the RAF and envisions the life leading up to the disappearance of the plane including the final flight. The story is interesting: the author’s loving affection for airplane equipment is infused throughout the personal journey of Topping. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read Kittyhawk Down: for those folks who love too read about World War II aircraft you will greatly enjoy this book!