Aviation Archive Issue 25 - 2016 UK

(Jacob Rumans) #1

72 HEAVY FIGHTERS OF WW2


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ike its namesake, the P-61 Black Widow
was not an aircraft you would want
to mess with. This creature of the
night was the largest, heaviest and most
powerful fighter of World War 2, stalking
its unsuspecting prey with powerful radar
before dispatching it with deadly efficiency.
The aircraft’s menacing appearance and
slick coat of black paint only heightened its
mystical status.
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow can trace
its origins back to the London Blitz when
the need for a high-altitude, high-speed
aircraft to intercept the night raids became
painfully apparent. The British conveyed its

Northrop P-61 Black Widow


requirements to US aircraft manufacturers,
including one Jack Northrop. He realised
that the speed, altitude, fuel load, loiter time
and firepower requirements demanded a
large aircraft with multiple engines. Shortly
thereafter, the US Army Air Corps (USAAC)
issued a similar requirement and the Black
Widow was conceived. The resulting aircraft was
formidable. It featured a long fuselage gondola
between two engine nacelles and tail booms.
The unusual cockpit layout placed the forward
gunner above and behind the pilot, while
the radar operator was at the aft end of the
gondola. The fuselage nacelle also housed the
radar and most of the armament, comprising

four 20mm (0.79in) Hispano M2 forward-firing
cannons mounted in the lower fuselage, and
four 12.7mm (0.50in) M2 Browning machine
guns in a remote-controlled dorsal gun turret.
The latter could be fired by the gunner or radar
operator, or it could be locked forward to be
fired by the pilot. Engines were Pratt & Whitney
R-2800-25S Double Wasp 18-cylinder radials,
producing over 2,000hp. Northrop struggled
with the P-61 aircraft, by far the biggest
contract it had ever tackled. Meeting the Army’s
demanding requirement was a challenge for its
engineers and development was delayed. The
first XP-61 prototype finally flew in May 1942,
with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls. The
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