P-61 Black Widow: Trailblazing Spider

In the sub genre of fancies that World War II historians, and other more casual persons, one of the more famous is the sub genre of World War II aircraft. In this sub genre are some pretty legendary names, such as the P-51 Mustang, the Me-262 jet fighter, and the Mitsubishi Zero. However, there is one plane in this category that debatably has set a precedent that has lasted for all subsequent military aviation designs. This aircraft is the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, and it has a very unique and special place in the history books.

The P-61 was conceptualized as early as 1940, over a year before the US entered the war. The US Air Officer in London, Lt. General Delos Emmons, was briefed by a representative of the RAF on their latest research in the field of RADAR, a high priority on the British military research list, as ground-based radar stations played a pivotal role in defending Britain from repeated Luftwaffe attacks. The peak of this meeting was the announcement of the development of a radar unit that could be built small enough to fit onto or into a plane and act independently of land-based stations, hence the potential for night fighter squadrons to be formed.

Indeed, the Navy began to form night fighter squadrons around 1943-44, that revolved around the Grumman F4F Wildcat, equipped with a wing-mounted radar pod. However, aircraft designers wanted to take the concept of a night fighter to the next level. Hence, the P-61 was born. In its first 'first', the Black Widow was the first plane built specifically to fight at night. The second 'first' comes from the fact that the Black Widow was the first plane to be designed specifically with radar integration in mind.

With this in mind, the first P-61s were deployed into combat in February 1944 to the European Theater, attached to the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron. Later on, the P-61 would also be shipped to the Pacific Theater. It is there that the Black Widow supposedly earned another spot in the history books. On the night of August 14/15, 1945, a Black Widow was spotted by a Japanese plane, which then crashed into the ocean while attempting evasive maneuvers. This lack of the Black Widow firing a shot in the kill means that the P-61 crew was not credited with the kill, officially that is.

P-61 at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

After the war, the P-61 was turned into the F-15 Reporter reconnaissance plane. Under this guise, the Black Widow also served as the template for other reconnaissance planes that were developed later. The last Black Widow was officially retired in 1954. Out of the 742 planes made, only four survived to the present day. One, possibly two are located in China, where they were left when the USAF left China during the Revolution. Another is undergoing restoration in a museum in Pennsylvania. Only two are on display fully restored at the moment. The most viewed example is in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center outside Dulles Airport, while the other is in the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

When one looks back at the history of the P-61 and wonders what its legacy is in the modern world, consider that the P-61 not only inspired other dedicated night fighter aircraft, but also because it was designed specifically for radar, nearly every single military and civilian aircraft from the postwar years to the present was designed with radar in mind. Until next time, take care, and thanks for reading.