Page 7 - Aerotech News and Review, Sept. 20, 2019

HANGAR, from 6
Joaquin Valley, most notably from Ham- daytime fighter and bomber operations. take a toll on the men and the missions
mer Field near Fresno. They were flying Many times, pilots found themselves as they lost focus on their jobs in fear
older Douglas A-20s that were OK, but parked at the end of the airstrips with or- of the nightly visits. The field had a
not particularly inspiring. When the tran- ders to just stay out of the way of every- detachment of two P-61s and crews.
sition finally came to move to the P-61, day operations. But one incident in China One night after a rather harrowing visit
crews were ecstatic at being assigned to changed the minds of many in the higher by the unwelcome visitors, one of the
this sinister looking night prowler that command, when one crew took the Black Widow pilots went to the base com-
was armed with so many 20mm can- Widow by its poisonous fangs and rode mander and demanded a meeting.
nons they knew that the enemy would it to the delight of the field commanders. Upon being granted the opportunity to
never know what hit them from those Every night, the field was being vis- speak, the pilot said, “Sir, would you like
dark night skies. ited by the Japanese and their Betty us to put an end to this nightly insanity?”
Deployed to Europe and Asia, the mis- Bombers with their surging motors. “Why sure,” came the reply, “but what
sion of night fighters was not very well The psychological aspect of these can you do? We are already throwing so
understood by the operations command night raids, along with the bombs that much flack up there, you will more than
at many airfields, as they were attached to accompanied them, were starting to likely just become another victim.” Give
us a chance, said the pilot, and let’s see Courtesy photograph
what we can do — and off the pilot went, The nocturnal predator that hunted the skies at night: the P-61 Black Widow.
after getting the green light to put a plan had barely cleared the end of the runway traffic circle in China and one was recov-
in motion. when eight 20mm cannons turned it into ered from a mountaintop in the South Pa-
The next night, the P-61 Black Widow a massive fireball and it plunged into the
and her crew waited patiently for the hos- jungle. The second plane started its run cific and is slowly being restored back to
tile visitors. Biding their time, the crew flying condition at the Mid-Atlantic Air
waited out the bombing run, and then and in a few seconds suffered the same Museum back east. Patty has already let
took off and followed the attackers to fate. With the anti-aircraft guns now it be known that, come the day when that
their home field. Noting time traveled lighting up the sky and demoralized Widow takes to the air again, we will be
and location, the crew made a turn for Betty Bomber crews returning to their at the field cheering on that first flight of
home and waited to make good on their hard stands, the Black Widow and her an old and tested warbird, thinking about
promise of bringing an end to the bomb- crew headed for home and, for the first that select group of men who took a spi-
ings. time in a long time, a good night’s sleep. der to foreign lands and used it to spin a
Late the next day, the P-61 took off The nighttime bombing visits became web of fear around enemy combatants.
at dusk, made a beeline to the enemy less and less frequent and, before long, The Northrop P-61 Black Widow: tru-
field, stood off a couple miles in the many bases close to the action found the
darkness and waited. Soon the lights and value in a night fighter operation around ly an amazing aircraft and legend in the
exhaust stacks glowing could be seen their field of operations. night fighter community, an amazing part
by the nocturnal visitor, as the Japanese The P-61 Black Widow captured so of World War II history, and a bench-
Courtesy photograph Bettys taxied out to take off. When the many folks’ imaginations back in World mark in Northrop design and application
for a very specific requirement for the air
One of the world’s four surviving P-61 night fighters, on display at the Air and first one began his roll out, the Widow War II, it’s amazing to think that only
Space Museum in Washington, D.C. locked him up under the hood of the four have survived to be shared with fu- war that was raging around the world.
gunner. As the plane began its climb, it ture generations. Of those four, one is in a Until next time, Bob out …

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