The first aircraft to be purposely designed as a radar-equipped nightfigher, Northrop's P-61 Black Widow was heavily influenced by early RAF combat experience with radar-equipped aircraft in 1940/41. Built essentially around the bulky Radiation Laboratory SCR-720 radar, which was mounted in the aircraft's nose, the P-61 proved to be the largest fighter ever produced for frontline service by the USAAF. Twin-engined and twin-boomed, the Black Widow was armed with a dorsal barbette of four 0.50-in Browning machine guns and two ventrally-mounted 20 mm cannon. This volume features all the frontline users of the mighty P-61, and includes many first-hand accounts from pilots and gunners who saw action in the Pacific, Mediterranean and Western Europe.
| ISBN: | 9781855327252 |
| Publication date: | 28th August 1998 |
| Author: | Warren Author Thompson |
| Illustrator: | Mark Styling |
| Publisher: | Osprey Publishing an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 100 pages |
| Series: | Combat Aircraft |
| Genres: |
Air forces and warfare European history Second World War Modern warfare History of engineering and technology Aircraft and aviation |