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Air Power |
The heavily-armed Black Widow was this country's first aircraft specifically designed as a night-fighter. In the nose, it carried radar equipment which enabled its crew of two or three to locate enemy aircraft in total darkness and fly into proper position to attack.
The XP-61 was flight-tested in 1942 and delivery of production aircraft began in late 1943. The P-61 flew its first operational intercept mission as a night fighter in Europe on July 3, 1944, and later was also used as a night intruder over enemy territory. In the Pacific, a Black Widow claimed its first "kill" on the night of July 6, 1944. As P-61s became available, they replaced interim Douglas P-70s in all USAAF night fighter squadrons. During WW II, Northrop built approximately 700 P-61s; 41 of these were -Cs manufactured in the summer of 1945 offering greater speed and capable of operating at higher altitude. Northrop fabricated 36 more Black Widows in 1946 as F-15A unarmed photo-reconnaissance aircraft.
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Northrop
Primary Role: Night Fighter
Crew: Two or Three
Engines: Two Pratt & Whitney R-2800s with 2,100 hp. each
Cost: $170,000
Dimensions:
Wing Span: 66 ft.
Length: 49 ft. 7 in.
Height: 14 ft. 8 in.
Weight: 35,855 lbs. loaded
Performance :
Maximum speed: 425 mph
Cruising speed: 275 mph
Range: 1,200 miles
Service Ceiling: 46,200 ft.
Armaments:
Electric Dorsal turret with four .50 machine guns, remotely controlled from front or rear sight station and fired by pilot.
Four .50-cal. machine guns in dorsalturret
Four 20mm cannons in belly fixed, forward firing
6,400 lbs. of bombs
Serviceman Missing from Vietnam War Identified A serviceman missing in action from the Vietnam War has been identified and returned to his family for burial.
He is Army Capt. Clinton A. Musil Sr. of Minneapolis, Minn.
On May 31, 1971, Musil was aboard an OV-1A Mohawk fixed wing aircraft flying a daylight reconnaissance mission over Savannakhet Province in Laos. Though enemy antiaircraft artillery was known to be in the area, none of the crewmembers in other aircraft noted any attack on Musil’s aircraft. Several people did see a large fireball when the aircraft crashed. Attempts to contact him by radio were unsuccessful, and search and rescue efforts were precluded by enemy forces in the area. During two investigations in 1993 and 1995, U.S. and Lao specialists learned of a potential crash site from local residents. The purported site was located on a steep slope, and appeared to correlate within 200 meters with the loss location in U.S. wartime records. The site had been scavenged, but the team found small pieces of aircraft wreckage and possible human remains. Following the recommendations of the investigators, other U.S. and Lao teams excavated the site twice in 2001 and once in 2002. During these three excavations, they recovered aircraft wreckage, personal effects, aircrew-related items and human remains.
The recovered remains were identified in 2003 by the Central Identification Laboatory through skeletal analysis and mitochondrial DNA. The remains of a second crew member have yet to be identified. The Defense Department’s POW/Missing Personnel Office establishes policy and directs the effort to account for the more than 88,000 missing in action from all conflicts. Of these, 1,871 are from the Vietnam War.
Happy TGIF all.
Northrop XP-61A [41-19509] (Northrop)
XP-61 1942 = Two 2000hp P&W R-2800-10; ff: 5/21/42
(p: Vance Breese). POP: 2 prototypes [41-19509/19510].
Northrop YP-61A [41-18876] (number shown as "118867", likely a sign-painter's error) (Northrop)
YP-61 1943 = R-2800-10. POP: 13 for service testing [41-18876/18888].
Northrop P-61A [42-5507] (Northrop)
P-61A, F-61A 1943 = Production series; two 2250hp P&W R-2800-65; span: 66'0" length: 48'11" v: 369/222/x range: 1450 ceiling: 33,100'.
Only the first 37 had top turret and three-man crew; first 45 with R-2800-10, the rest with 2250hp R-2800-65.
POP: 200 [42-5485/5934, -39348/39397], included suffix variants of A-1 with R-2800-10, A-5 and A-10 with water injection, and A-11 with drop tanks.
From this lot 12 were transferred to USMC in 1945 as F2T-1.
Northrop P-61B-25 Underside and gear [43-8238] (Northrop)
P-61B, F-61B 1943 = R-2800-65; span: 66'0" length: 49'7" load:
16,300# (>7700#) v: 366/200/x range: 1900 ceiling: 33,100', First 200 without top turret.
POP: 450 42-39398/39757, 43-8231/8320], included suffix variants from B-1 to -25; included long-nose model; length: 57'7".
Northrop P-61C [43-8323] (Northrop)
P-61C, F-61C 1945 = Final production version, with 2100hp turbosupercharged R-2800-73.
POP: POP: 41 [42-8321/8361], of which 36 were converted into F-15A in 1945.
Northrop P-61E [42-39549] (Northrop)
XP-61E 1945 = 2p long-range escort fighter; 2100 hp R-2800-65; length: 49'7" load: 18,831# v: 376 range: 2250.
POP: 2 conversions from P-61B minus radar turret and with side-by-side seats under a bubble canopy [42-39549, -39557].
The first was converted to XF-15, the latter was lost in testing.
Northrop P-61B Black Widow "Snuffy Smith" / Monogram 1/48
AI Mk X; RAF ARI 5570; US SCR 720
P-61 Restoration Mid Atlantic Air Museum
The key to the P-61's success in WW II was the Western Electric SCR-720 airborne intercept (AI) radar. Army Air Force censors generally whited out such details. When deployed in combat, the Widow's nose cone was opaque or painted over to conceal the AI unit. The SCR-720 featured a 10-cm dish with a range of 6.5 miles; the unit was extraordinarily difficult to jam.
The Tizard Mission
In August 1940 Bowen left the UK as one of seven members of a Mission, led by Sir Henry Tizard, to disclose recent British technical advances to the USA and Canada. Bowen's job was to tell them all about British radar He took with him not only information on all existing and projected equipment, but also an early sample of the cavity magnetron, the essential and highly secret key to the development of centimetre-wave radar that had just been invented by J.T. Randall and H.A.H. Boot at Birmingham University.
Following discussions with the Tizard Mission, the US made the important decision that the development of metre-wavelength radar should be the responsibility of the Armed Services, and that the development at. centimetre wavelengths should be the responsibility of a special Microwave Committee of which Dr Alfred Loomis was appointed Chairman.
As far as metre-wave radar was concerned Bowen, together with other members of the Mission, visited the various laboratories of the Armed Services telling them about developments in the UK; in particular he told them about airborne radar and arranged for demonstrations of ASV MkII, AI Mk IV and IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) equipment in the air. However most of his considerable energy and enthusiasm was devoted to helping them develop centimetre-wave radar. Ever since the days of Bawdsey Manor he had urged that work should be done on shorter and shorter wavelengths so that radars could use narrow beams; an airborne radar, for example, might use a narrow beam to eliminate the returns from the ground that limited the maximum range of AI at metre-waves.
With remarkable speed the Microwave Committee set up a special laboratory, the Radiation Laboratory at MIT, for the development of centimetre-wave radar, and Bowen collaborated closely with them on their programme. His advice was particularly valuable in the early stages; for example, he wrote the first draft specification for the development of their 10cm AI.
So successful was the programme at the Radiation Laboratory that the first experimental airborne 10cm radar was tested in a Douglas B18, with Bowen on board, on 27 March 1941, only seven months after the Tizard Mission had arrived in the USA. Their first 10cm AI (SCR720), accompanied by Bowen, was demonstrated in the UK in August 1941 and later became known as AI Mk IX.
In the course of the next year the Radiation Laboratory grew in size and soon became the most important and productive radar laboratory in the USA; by the end of the war the staff numbered about 4,000.
The Tizard Mission, in which Bowen played such a large part, was highly successful. It drew the attention of the Americans to the importance of radar as a weapon of war, introduced them to airborne radar, accelerated the development of centimetre-wave radar by giving them the cavity magnetron and, owing much to Bowen, helped them to set up the highly successful Radiation Laboratory.
