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The Black Widow was the US Army Air Force's first purpose-built night fighter.
In a few weeks time I will be traveling to Swindon in the UK for the Great Western Lego Show, where I will be displaying some of my minifig scale WWII aircraft. This provided a little extra incentive for me to build a new one. I've been a fan of the P-61B Black Widow for years and after having seen a real one (at the National Air and Space Museum in Dulles) it was my first pick. It arrived too late in the war to make a large impact, but makes up for that by looking menacing!
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed to use radar. It could operate in total darkness, aided by its onboard systems and the highly-effective nose-mounted radar. The P-61 had a crew of three: pilot, gunner, and radar operator.
Building instructions are available here.
Follow me on Instagram .
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed to use radar. It could operate in total darkness, aided by its onboard systems and the highly-effective nose-mounted radar. The P-61 had a crew of three: pilot, gunner, and radar operator.
Building instructions are available here.
Follow me on Instagram .
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed to use radar. It could operate in total darkness, aided by its onboard systems and the highly-effective nose-mounted radar. The P-61 had a crew of three: pilot, gunner, and radar operator.
Building instructions are available here.
Follow me on Instagram .
The Black Widow carried three crew members. The front cockpit housed a the pilot and a gunner in a tandem seating arrangement. The aft cockpit housed a radio operator, who was responsible for the radar equipment.
The Black Widow was one of a number of WWII aircraft (including the P-38 Lightning and Fokker G1) to use a twin boom layout with a centrally mounted crew nacelle.
The P-61's main armament consisted of four 20mm cannons in a ventral bulge. A drawback to this arrangement was that in order for the guns to be boresighted (aligned) the nosegear had to be retracted! Late production P-61s could carry up to four external tanks, although in service it was rare for all four to be fitted. My model has only two.
The US Army Air Corps' first dedicated night fighter, some operated Europe but their biggest contribution and impact was in the Pacific. The P-61 used microwave radar with a scanning dish from the first, unlike the RAF's earlier, improvised, Night Fighters, which started with the longer-wave AI Mk IV. That said, the RAF wound up with Mosquito night fighters and effective Ground Controlled Interception (GCI) before this P-61 was ordered, in 1942. Some USAAC, Navy and Marine night fighter crews, and controllers, learned their trades in and with RAF Beaufighters, in Italy. Enough that Beaufighters in British night camouflage operated with star and bar .Givene 00"9150 minutes in a huge museum, I wast trying to pack as much into each frame as I could. Here we can see the tip of the Pitot tube, nose wheel and nose gear leg are all painted "aluminum". The gear well and doors are yellow zinc chromate. The cockpit interior, including the framing of the windscreen and canopy, is chromate tinted to match "interior green"
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed to use radar. It could operate in total darkness, aided by its onboard systems and the highly-effective nose-mounted radar. The P-61 had a crew of three: pilot, gunner, and radar operator.
Building instructions are available here.
Follow me on Instagram .
VP-14/VP-102/VPB-102 Special Collection
From album #4 Entitled “Second Tour”
SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
P-61s were initially fitted with a dorsal turret housing four .50 cal machine guns. In service this installation proved troublesome and many P-61s were delivered without the turret. Late production P-61B models, such as my model, did have the turret fitted, although in service it was often fixed to only fire dead ahead.
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed to use radar. It could operate in total darkness, aided by its onboard systems and the highly-effective nose-mounted radar. The P-61 had a crew of three: pilot, gunner, and radar operator.
Building instructions are available here.
Follow me on Instagram .
My model represents a P-61B named 'Little Audrey'. It was one of few P-61Bs to be used in the European Theatre of Operations, with most of the Black Widows in Europe being earlier P-61A models. 'Little Audrey' served with the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron from late 1944 until the end of the war. During that time the squadron flew from bases in the UK, France and Belgium, following the Allied advance towards Germany. The 422nd NFS was the highest scoring unit to fly P-61s.
Many thanks to Gold 2 for making a scan of an image of the nose-art.
The P-61 was massive for a fighter, with a wingspan and length that was comparable to medium bombers such as the B-25 Mitchell or B-26 Marauder.
Part of the reason for this was the size of the radar installation. The German He 219 'Uhu', built for the same role, is similarly large.
Recovered on a mountain top in New Guinea this P-61 is currently undergoing restoration at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA. Upon completion it will be one of four left and the only one in flight condition.
The undercarriage on the Black Widow is mercifully simple with all three units retracting aft. The main challenge was finding enough space. Space in the nose is at premium because of the cockpit floor and the tyres on the main gear are so large they fill up almost the entire cross section of the tail booms.
Lady in the Dark.
Blender 3d model. More info in:
www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/p-61-black-widow-3d-model/82...
PictionID:40971411 - Title:Black Widow Northrop P-61B - Catalog:15_002841 - Filename:15_002841.tif - Image from the Charles Daniels Photo Collection album "US Army Aircraft."----PLEASE TAG this image with any information you know about it, so that we can permanently store this data with the original image file in our Digital Asset Management System.----SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum was actually formed for the purpose of retrieving and restoring a P-61 to flying condition. A P-61B that had crashed on Mt. Cyclops in New Guinea was finally retrieved and brought to the U.S. in 1991. Restoration has continued for 15 years, and now the plane sits on its landing gear for the first time in more than 60 years. The crew nacelle and much of the electronics have been completed, and work is progressing on the tail booms and wings. There are only three complete P-61 airframes in the world today. The museum hopes to have this fourth example take off on its second maiden flight within 2-3 years. Visit www.maam.org for more details and loads of photos of this very elegant aircraft.
Plate 17. Draining fields assist in the control of some insect problems and may provide access for fish.
books.google.com.ph/books/irri?id=aUgEsiHeTj8C&pg=PA6...
Part of the image collection of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
The P-61 restoration display was a very busy area. Visitors were encouraged to part with $5 to help this very expensive project along.
Finished, after only four years!! The canopy framing was done using Fox Transfers black lining decals, which will do for this old-school build.
The crew nacelle is almost complete in this photo. Significant progress has been made since these pictures were taken.
0309-15-24
The Moon Light Serenade is a Northrop P-61B known as the Black Widow. The heavily-armed Black Widow was the United States' first aircraft specifically designed as a night-fighter.
Yokosuka MXY7-K1 Ohka was a Japanese designed kamikaze suicide rocket bomb trainer from World War 2.