A good friend of mine who knows I enjoy a good read about the P-61, recently pointed me to this article on the P-61’s first flight.  Good stuff and worth passing along to my readers:

Click on the link below to read the article:

Northrop P-61 Black Widow: First American Airplane Designed and Built to Fight at Night, Part I

A teaser from the article:

During negotiations in the fall of 1940 with the British Purchasing Commission to build a dive bomber for the RAF, John “Jack” K. Northrop discussed the preliminary ideas about a night fighter. In mid-October, the Luftwaffe launched about 400-night bombing sorties and London suffered heavy attacks. The Luftwaffe switched to bombing mostly at night in November and many attacks were against cities. The need was urgent for a night fighter with sufficient endurance to loiter above a target and wait for the bombers to approach. U. S. Army Air Corps Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons was in London during several attacks. He conveyed the need for an American night fighter to his Chief of Experimental Aircraft Projects, Col. Lawrence C. Craigie. On October 21, 1940, Craigie briefed Northrop’s chief of research, Vladimir H. Pavlecka on the need for an aircraft capable of carrying devices “that would locate aircraft in the dark.” Airborne radar was still too secret to reveal its true nature…….

Never really thought of the P-61 as an object that “loitered”, but I like the connotation.

The article has a Part II, which can be found here:

Northrop P-61 Black Widow: First American Airplane Designed and Built to Fight at Night, Part II

Enjoy!

Jackie