*******************************************************************************
Northrop P-61B Black Widow
by Kazunori Ito
*******************************************************************************
1.Description of this aircraft
2.Specification
3.About the installation
4.About the operations
5.About free software
6.About the directions point in FS2004
*******************************************************************************
The P-61 was the first U.S. aircraft designed from the start to be a night fighter. By the time it arrived with combat squadrons in mid-1944, targets were rather scarce. Thus, while it didn't pile up a large score of enemy planes destroyed, it was an extremely capable and deadly aircraft.
It originated in the Battle of Britain, when the British urgently needed a night fighter. Because early radars were so heavy and because the british requirement called for a nightfighter that could stay airborne for a long time, only a twin-engined aircraft would work. Northrop began working on the project in late 1940. Northrop's proposal, submitted in November, followed the general outline of Lockheed's P-38: a big, twin-engined fighter, with crew and guns in the fuselage, and two engine nacelles extending back into twin booms connected by a long horizontal stabilizer. The armament was quite different though; the P-61 housed two dorsal turrrets, each with four .50 caliber machine guns.
While there had been primitive efforts to develop night fighters since 1921, by 1940, radar promised to make them practical. The British had first developed Airborne Interception (AI) radar and also developed the cavity magnetron, which permitted short wavelength radars. Using a British cavity magenetron, by early 1941, engineers from MIT and several American electronics companies had built the first microwave radar, the forerunner of the SCR-270 used in the P-61.
Meanwhile, Northrop struggled with the P-61 aircraft, by far the biggest contract it had ever tackled. Meeting the Army's requirement for a three-man crew was one of many challenges faced by the design team. Throughout 1941, indeed throughout the entire war, required engineering changes continually cropped up, delaying the development of the P-61. Guns were relocated; fuel tanks were added; and control surfaces were redesigned. The first XP-61 protoype flew in May, 1942, with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls.
The second prototype flew that November and had radar installed in April, 1943.
Flights with the YP-61's revealed that the dorsal machine gun turret caused severe tail buffeting. Thus it was removed entirely from many early P-61A's, and when added back, only mounted two guns.
Service deliveries started in May, 1944, when the 348th Night Fighter Squadron (NFS) of the 481st Night Fighter Group (NFG) received their Black Widows. While the P-61 was exceptionally maneuverable for such a large plane (thanks to the large and well-designed flaps), it remained troublesome. In June, deliveries increased to three a day. The first P-61 kill was recorded on June 30, 1944 (some sources say July 6), when a Black Widow of the 6th NFS downed a 'Betty" bomber over the Pacific. In Europe, the crews continued training while debates raged over the nightfighting virtues of the Black Widow, the Mosquito, and the Bristol Beaufighter.
Once the Black Widow did get into action in Europe, it found success against a variety of targets: fighter planes, bombers, V-1 buzz bombs, and ground targets like locomotives and truck convoys. Some ETO NF squadrons did not convert until spring of 1945, when the war was almost over. In the Pacific, the 418th and 421st NFS adopted the P-61 in mid-1944, and in the CBI, the 426th and 427th NFS transitioned to the P-61 later that year.
706 P-61's were built in total.
---------------------------------------------------
Northrop P-61B is a twin-engine two- to three place night fighter.
It was designed as a cantilever monoplane with a central fuselage pod, engine nacells blended into the double booms carrying the double-fin empennage.
It had a retractable tri-cycle undercarriage was equipped with the radar gear and gun and rocket armament.
--------------------------------------------------
[ Specification ]
Wingspan : 66 ft(20.12 m)
Length : 49.5 ft(15.1 m)
Height : 14.8 ft(4.49 m)
Wingarea : 662.3 sq ft(61.53 sq m)
Empty Weight : 24,000 lb(10,886 kg)
Max Weight : 38,000 lb(17,237 kg)
Power plant : Two Pratt&Whitney R-2800-65 engines
Thrust 2x 2,000 HP 2x 1,491 kW
Max. speed : 366 mph(589 km/h)
Initial climb rate : 2,200 ft/min(670 m/min)
Ceiling : 33,000 ft(10,060 m)
Max. range : 2,800 miles(4,500 km)
Armament : 4x 20mm cannon M-2 under fuselage, (P-61A also 4x 12.7mm machine guns in dorsal turret), up to 4x 725 kg external weapons or tanks.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[ About the installation ]
The airframe must copy the \P-61B BlackWidow folder as it is in the Aircraft folder of FS2002 or FS2004.
\FS2002(FS2004)
-----\Aircraft
---------\P-61B BlackWidow
Please copy all files in the \gauges folder onto the gauge in the Gauges folder of FS2002 or FS2004.
A general gauge is saved for the gauge bundled this time.
The Gauges of EXTRA-300, Kingair, Beech_Baron and GPS are not bundled.
Please set up it by yourself.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[ About the operations ]
A special key operation is not used for this model.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[ About free software ]
All aircraft that I made are free software.
The reprint and the repaint may go freely.
However, please defend the following conditions.
1.The change in contents of this file is prohibited.
(Please distribute it like the Zip file of the current state when distributing it. )
2.Please neither reverse-assembly nor never remodel(convert) it of the aircraft model.
3.Please don't bundle my airframe(MDL file) in the package of your works when you open the repaint to the public.
(Please open only the texture to the public. )
4.Don't use DXT format for making texture.
Please make it by the format that everyone can change.
It is necessary to be able to read and change with usual drawing software.
5.It is prohibited to bundle and to open a new panel to the public to my aircraft model.
(Please open only the panel to the public.
It is included in this file, and remodeling the panel that uses the panel background and the change in the panel background are prohibited. )
6.I maintain the copyright of the aircraft model and the panel background.
7.The copyright of the gauge belongs to the author.
---------------------------------------------------------
[ About the directions point in FS2004 ]
This aircraft model is made by using FSDS Ver2.24.
Therefore, it is possible to play basically in FS2004(FS9).
However........!!
For a wide large-scale aircraft, the distortion is caused and the phenomenon of the aerofoil tip's disappearing happens in the spot shooting mode.
If this phenomenon happens, Please switch to the spot shooting mode by using other small aircraft.
Afterwards, if this aircraft is selected, it is normally displayed.
*******************************************************************
Please give mail to the following mail address when there is a recommendation of making the opinion and the thing that doesn't come.
KzIT16643VT@aol.com
2006/06/24
Fukuoka, Japan
*******************************************************************