Northrop P-61 "Black Widow"
Model Airplane News Cover Art for October, 1944
by Jo Kotula
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The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. military aircraft designed specifically to use radar. The "Black Widow" was an all-metal, twin-engine, twin-boom, aircraft flown as a night-fighter by United States Army Air Forces squadrons in the European Theater, the Pacific Theater, the CBI Theater, and the Mediterranean Theater during World War II.

It replaced earlier British-designed night-fighter aircraft that had been updated to incorporate radar when it became available.

  

Northrop P-61 Black Widow Night Fighter
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On the night of 14 August 1945, a P-61B-2 of the 548th NFS named "Lady in the Dark" was unofficially credited with the last allied air victory before VJ Day. The P-61 was also modified to create the F-15 Reporter, the last piston-powered photo-reconnaissance aircraft designed and produced for the U.S. Air Force.

  

Patent Diagrams for the Northrop P-61 Black Widow
Design Patent D-144,211
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Click Here to learn how to get free patent diagrams

Here is an Army Air Corps Training Film for the P-61.

The Cleveland model airplane company made a contemporaneous detailed scale model kit of the "Black Widow".

  

Northrop P-61 "Black Widow" at the Cleveland Site

You can buy the plans and patterns that will enable you to make this model right now. Click Here to go to the exact location on the Cleveland Website to get them.

Click Here for more information about the P-61 Black Widow.

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