Month: September 2014

Some cool precision machined components makers pictures:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Northrop P-61C Black Widow

Image by Chris Devers
Examine &amp contrast:

Northrop P-61C Black widow:
* Front view
* Above view

Star Wars ARC-170 Fighter:
* Official web page
* Wikia
* Wikipedia
* Toy evaluation

I put it to you that they are the Identical Thing.

* twin engines
* double-cockpit in front
* gunner’s cockpit in back
* broad wing coming out from the middle

• • • • •

See far more images of this, and the Wikipedia write-up.

Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Northrop P-61C Black Widow:

The P-61 Black Widow was the initial U.S. aircraft developed to locate and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in poor weather, a feat produced possible by the use of on-board radar. The prototype 1st flew in 1942. P-61 combat operations started just following D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Black Widows flew deep into German airspace, bombing and strafing trains and road visitors. Operations in the Pacific started at about the identical time. By the finish of World War II, Black Widows had observed combat in each and every theater and had destroyed 127 enemy aircraft and 18 German V-1 buzz bombs.

The Museum’s Black Widow, a P-61C-1-NO, was delivered to the Army Air Forces in July 1945. It participated in cold-climate tests, high-altitude drop tests, and in the National Thunderstorm Project, for which the leading turret was removed to make room for thunderstorm monitoring gear.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Northrop Aircraft Inc.

Date:
1943

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 450 x 1500cm, 10637kg, 2000cm (14ft 9 3/16in. x 49ft two 9/16in., 23450.3lb., 65ft 7 3/8in.)

Extended Description:
The P-61 Black Widow was the very first United States aircraft created from the commence to locate and destroy other aircraft at evening and in bad weather. It served in combat for only the final year of Planet War II but flew in the European, Mediterranean, Pacific, and China-Burma-India theaters. Black Widow crews destroyed 127 enemy aircraft and 18 robot V-1 buzz bombs.

Jack Northrop’s massive fighter was born during the dark days of the Battle of Britain and the London Blitz in 1940. British successes against German daylight bombers forced the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) to shift to night bombing. By the time Royal Air Force (RAF) Spitfires could launch, climb out, and then attempt to intercept these raids, the bombers crews had typically dropped their loads and turned for house. An aircraft was necessary to patrol the skies over England for up to seven hours in the course of the night, and then stick to radar vectors to attack German aircraft just before they reached their target. U.S. Army Air Corps officers noted this requirement and decided that America must have a evening fighter if and when it entered the war.

The Army awarded a contract to Northrop on January 30, 1941. The resulting design and style featured twin tail booms and rudders for stability when the aircraft closed in behind an intruder. It was a large aircraft with a massive fuel load and two effective engines. Armament evolved into four 20 mm cannons mounted in the belly firing forward and a powered, remote-controlled turret on best of the center fuselage equipped with four .50 cal. machine guns. The three-man crew consisted of the pilot, a gunner seated behind him, and a radar observer/gunner at the rear behind the gun turret. Only the pilot could fire the cannons but any of the 3 could operate the machine guns.

Simultaneously, perform was proceeding, at a laboratory run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to develop the airborne radar set. The Army tested an early design and style in a Douglas B-18 in 1941. The considerably-enhanced SCR-520 set was ready by early 1942. Meanwhile, Army enthusiasm for the XP-61 developed one more contract on March ten, 1941, for 13 service-test YP-61s. Even before these airplanes flew, Northrop received orders for 410 production machines! Northrop test pilot Vance Breeze flew the aircraft on Might 26, 1942. Although the Black Widow was almost as large as a medium bomber, it was a correct fighter. The only prohibited flight maneuvers had been outside loops, sustained inverted flight, and deliberate spins.

As Northrop advanced the design toward production, provide troubles arose and modifications became needed. The four-gun top turret was the exact same variety fitted to the prime forward position on the Boeing B-29 Superfortress (see NASM collection) and that bomber had production priority more than the P-61. As a outcome, many hundred P-61s did not have this turret. Those that did skilled buffeting when the turret was traversed from side to side and a repair took time. By October 1943, the initial P-61s have been coming off the line. Education began immediately, and the initial evening fighters arrived in the European Theater by March 1944. Combat operations began just right after D-Day (June 6) and the Black Widows quickly departed from their original part as defensive interceptors and became aggressors. They flew deep into German airspace, bombing and strafing trains and road traffic and creating travel challenging for the enemy by day and at evening.

P-61s arrived in the Pacific Theater at about the very same time as the European Black Widows. For years, the Japanese had operated lone bombers over Allied targets at evening and now U. S. fighters could find and attack them. However, on June 30, 1944, a Mitsubishi BETTY (see NASM collection) became the very first P-61 kill in the Pacific. Soon, Black Widows controlled the evening skies. On the evening of August 14-15, a P-61 named &quotLady in the Dark&quot by her crew encountered an intruding Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon) OSCAR (see NASM collection) and eventually forced it into the sea with out firing a shot. Although the war was officially over, no one was confident that all of the Japanese had heard the message and stopped fighting. The American night fighters flew once more the next night and &quotLady in the Dark&quot again discovered a target. It was a Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki (Demon) TOJO and the fighters maneuvered wildly as they attempted to obtain an benefit. The P-61 crew lost and reacquired the Ki-44 numerous occasions then ultimately lost it for excellent and returned to base. The next day ground troops discovered the wrecked TOJO. In the darkness, Lady in the Dark’s crew had forced the Japanese pilot to fly into the ground, again with out firing a shot.

With the war more than, the Army cancelled additional production. Northrop had built 706 aircraft like 36 with a very modified center fuselage. These F-15As (later redesignated RF-61C) mounted a quantity of cameras in the nose and proved able reconnaissance platforms. Many of these airplanes participated in the initial great aerial photographic survey of the Pacific islands. A couple of, plus some special objective P-61s, stayed in active service till 1950.

NASM’s Black Widow is a P-61C-1-NO, U.S. Army Air Forces serial number 43-8330. Northrop delivered it to the Army on July 28, 1945. By October 18, this P-61 was flying at Ladd Field, Alaska, in cold climate tests and it remained there till March 30, 1946. This airplane later moved to Pinecastle Air Force Base, Florida, for participation in the National Thunderstorm Project. The project’s aim was to learn far more about thunderstorms and to use this understanding to far better protect civil and military airplanes that operated near them. The U. S. Weather Bureau and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) undertook the study with cooperation from the Army Air Forces and Navy. With its radar and specific flight qualities, the P-61 was capable of locating the most turbulent regions of a storm, penetrating them, and returning crew and instruments intact for detailed study.

Pinecastle personnel removed the guns and turret from 43-8330 in July 1946 to make space for new equipment. In September, the aircraft moved to Clinton County Army Air Base, Ohio, exactly where it remained till January 1948. The Air Force then assigned the aircraft to the Flight Test Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Soon after declaring the airplane surplus in 1950, the Air Force stored it at Park Ridge, Illinois, on October three along with critical aircraft destined for the National Air Museum.

But 43-8830 was not done flying. NACA asked the Smithsonian to lend them the aircraft for use in one more unique system. The committee wanted to investigate how aerodynamic shapes behaved when dropped from higher altitude. The Black Widow arrived at the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Naval Air Station Moffett Field, California, on February 14, 1951. NACA returned the aircraft and delivered it to the Smithsonian at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on August ten, 1954. When the engines shut down for the last time, this P-61 had accumulated only 530 total flight hours. Smithsonian personnel trucked it to the Paul Garber Facility in Suitland, Maryland. In 2006, the aircraft was preserved and assembled at the Udvar-Hazy Center. The three different paint schemes from its previous service life have been revealed by meticulously removing individual layers of paint.