P-70 night fighter

[mthrockmor]

I am guessing I am not the first to ask about this. We have some sticks who insist the A-20 turns like a bi-plane. Maybe we should add the P-70 the flock. It is a fighter version of the A-20 with 20mms. I am not a historian so I'm sure better minds will correct but Wikipedia notes it was used in the Pacific though doesn't list how many kills were made. Here is the short description of this version:

P-70
In October 1940, the USAAC felt a need for long-range fighters more than attack bombers, so some of the production run of A-20s were converted to P-70 and P-70A night-fighters. They were equipped with SCR-540 radar (a copy of British AI Mk IV), the glazed nose often painted black to reduce glare and hide the details of the radar set, and had four 20 mm (.79 in) forward-firing cannon in a ventral bomb bay tray. Further P-70 variants were produced from A-20C, G and J variants. The singular airframe P-70B-1 (converted from an A-20G) and subsequent P-70B-2s (converted from A-20Gs and Js) had American centimetric radar (SCR-720 or SCR-729) fitted. The P-70s and P-70As saw combat only in the Pacific during World War II and only with the USAAF. The P-70B-1 and P-70B-2 aircraft never saw combat but served as night fighter aircrew trainers in the US in Florida and later in California. All P-70s were retired from service by 1945.

Thoughts?
Boo

[titanic3]

The P-70B-1 and P-70B-2 aircraft never saw combat but served as night fighter aircrew trainers in the US in Florida and later in California. All P-70s were retired from service by 1945.

There's your problem.

[cobia38]

 dig deeper, p70 did serv in squad #s and allso have recorded kills

[waystin2]

dig deeper, p70 did serv in squad #s and allso have recorded kills

Ditto.  Night fighter or not it deserves inclusion.

[titanic3]

There's no night to fly it in anyway. If anything, a Ju88/Bf110 Night Fighter Variant would be a much better addition. We have enough American planes.

[mthrockmor]

I would prefer the P-61 first, add the Me-410 and Ju-87 tank buster as well.minus the P-61 the others are just mods of birds already in the stable. Should be easy?

Boo

PS I'll see if I can find kill numbers for the P-70.

[gyrene81]

sooo...besides the radar gear and under fuselage quad 20mm gun pod, the performance is no different than the a-20g.

[Rino]

There's no night to fly it in anyway. If anything, a Ju88/Bf110 Night Fighter Variant would be a much better addition. We have enough American planes.

     Who died and made you Lord of AH?

[Pigslilspaz]

     Who died and made you Lord of AH?

I did.

[Karnak]

If nightfighters were to be added, they should be German and British.  You know, the two countries who fought a massive air war at night.  Beaufighters, Mosquitoes, Bf110s, Me410s, Ju88s, He219s....

Sorry, but the OP's request is nothing more than "Lets get 20mm cannons on the A-20G" in disguise.  There are plenty of quad 20mm fighters in the game right now if that is the most important criteria you have.  If flying the A-20 is the most important criteria you have, then fly an A-20 and use its quad .50s.

[titanic3]

     Who died and made you Lord of AH?

Apparently, Pig did. 

But on a serious note, with night in the MA removed, what's the point of night fighters? Besides FSO. And what benefits would they add over the current planes?
Night fighters were guided by radar to their target, in the MA, radar guides everyone. What would set the night fighters apart from the "day" fighters? Besides bigger guns and heavier equipment?

In FSOs, the Bf110s, F4Us, and Bf109s can all serve as replacements for night fighters without too much of a difference from the night fighter variant itself.

[Ack-Ack]

dig deeper, p70 did serv in squad #s and allso have recorded kills

The P-70 was pretty much a failure, there is a reason why the vast majority only saw service as stateside trainers.  Also, of the two detachments sent to the PTO (Detachments A and B), one of them (Detachment B) traded in most of their Nighthawks for P-38 by the time their tour was over.  Detachment A kept their P-70s but due to the fact that their performance as so lacking that they were rarely able to intercept Japanese night intruders.  The total number of kills associated with the P-70s is less than 4.

When Detachment B converted to the P-38, they kept a small number of P-70s for night intruder missions and used their P-38s for night fighter interceptions, only Detachment A kept their entire lot of P-70s and only accounted for a single successful night fighter interception.  The majority of missions flown by the P-70 in combat were night intruder/bombing missions and not night fighter interceptions.  There were two reasons for this, 1) the primitive radar used by the P-70 wasn't reliable above 20,000ft and 2) the P-70 was barely able to fly at 27,000 feet and the Japanese very quickly found out about this and would routinely come in at 30,000ft where the P-70 couldn't touch them. 

I agree with Karnak.  A wish for the P-70 is just another "Lets get 20mm cannons on the A-20G in disguise".  If people really want the 20mm cannon variant then it would be a good idea to lobby HTC for a perked ordnance system to be put in place that would allow a player to select the 20mm option for the A-20G at the cost of some perks.

ack-ack

[surfinn]

Ya what AKAK said

-1

[lyric1]

The Russians used the 20mm cannon option a fair bit not a lot of info except they did use them. Don't mistake the handling to be anything like the 50 cal A-20's.

So nose heavy it would be a very different animal.

[Saxman]

If nightfighters were to be added, they should be German and British.  You know, the two countries who fought a massive air war at night.  Beaufighters, Mosquitoes, Bf110s, Me410s, Ju88s, He219s....

I would argue for the P-61 as well, considering its significance as one of the first fighters designed specifically for carrying airborne radar (most of its predecessors were modified daytime aircraft) and seeing action in all theaters of the conflict.