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 the years 1940/41 of World War II (1939-1945). 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.
- ISBN10 1299603076
- ISBN13 9781299603073
- Publish Date 1 January 2012 (first published 28 August 1998)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 3 June 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Osprey Publishing (UK)
- Format eBook
- Language English