P-61 Black Widow, Night Fighter

[Zacherof]

Wikipedia is awesome

[Mongoose]

  I read somewhere once that certain base commanders preferred the P-38M night fighter because it was faster, and could get into position quicker.  Of course, that could have just been some P-38 fan boasting, but it is something to think about.

  On the other hand, I am betting the P-61 would be more comfortable on long patrols.   

[lyric1]

One odd shoot down was that of a B-29! The Crew had bailed for what ever reason and a P-61 was sent out to shoot it down in the Tonkin Gulf.

B-29 shoot down..





Also like this story on the P-61.





Night vision.




Radar stuff.







Bombs & rockets too.

[Zacherof]

Wonder how it handles as oppose to the 38 and mossie, 110, and 410

[Ack-Ack]

  I read somewhere once that certain base commanders preferred the P-38M night fighter because it was faster, and could get into position quicker.  Of course, that could have just been some P-38 fan boasting, but it is something to think about.

  On the other hand, I am betting the P-61 would be more comfortable on long patrols.   

I don't know if certain base commanders preferred the P-38M over the P-61 but you are correct in that the P-38M was faster than the P-61.  Even with all the extra stuff added to the P-38M, including a 2nd crew member, it had a very little performance penalty over the single seat P-38.  Unfortunately, while it did take part in combat operations, it never engaged any enemy fighters at night in the PTO and only saw operations in the last few days of the war in the Pacific.

ack-ack

[bozon]

So, if a P-61 defeated some P47 in a mock dogfight and Robert Johnson in his razorback P-47 defeated some spit in a mock dogfight, does that mean that P-61 is a better dogfighter than the spit? Heck, everyone seem to have some story about some pilot in a P-XX defeating some spit. I don't know why the Brits even bothered with this plane.

[save]

Question is if we Want a plane with 4*20mm that turns better than a P47, you might as well give the A20 4*20mm to compete with the p61, the 6*.50 is mediocre compared.
I would be another step in MA arms race

[Saxman]

Night vision.

As soon as I saw those pics I thought of this, lol:



Now THAT would be a great feature to have for the P-61 if night would be turned on in the Mains.

[9thAFE]

They got one of these at the Airforce Museum in Dayton around the corner from me, it is a pretty sweet looking plane, it was one of those where when I went on a trip last year I saw that and immediately thought "that would be fun to have in AH"  . The photo on the first page of the black one on the tarmac is actually the one that is at the museum, I do believe that photo was taken at the museum as well.

[earl1937]

They got one of these at the Airforce Museum in Dayton around the corner from me, it is a pretty sweet looking plane, it was one of those where when I went on a trip last year I saw that and immediately thought "that would be fun to have in AH"  . The photo on the first page of the black one on the tarmac is actually the one that is at the museum, I do believe that photo was taken at the museum as well.

That is the One!!

[leitwolf]

P-61 .. one day   

[Slash27]

It would be an allied 410 - not fast enough, poor maneuverability, but just a huge pile of guns.

May want to crack a book or two. It would be head and shoulders above a 410.

[Squire]

I want to see the P-61A/B version but only if the radar is functional.

[Saxman]

I want to see the P-61A/B version but only if the radar is functional.

The question is how to handle it?

The obvious answer would be to allow the P-61 act like a mobile radar ring on the map, basically treating them like AWACS. However would this be a good representation of how the radar aboard the Black Widow and other Night Fighters would work? Or would you give the Black Widow and other night fighters an in-cockpit radar scope independent of the clipboard map?

One thought I had was to have icon ranges decreased (say, by half) after a certain time of day, while night fighters like the P-61 would get full icon ranges.

Maybe the best option is to use some combination of all of them. IE:

* Radar-equipped TBMs experimenting with early night fighter tactics during the Guadalcanal campaign essentially did function in an AWACS role, acting as flying radar posts to vector radarless F4Fs. These aircraft would act like base radar, only not connected to HQ status and with the radar ring only visible to the TBM itself.

* Actual night-fighters (F4U-2, F6F-5N, P-38M, P-61, radar-equipped Bf-110s, etc.) would have in-cockpit scopes where it was appropriate. In multi-crewed night fighters which had a dedicated radar operator and the pilot didn't monitor the scope himself there would be a separate "radar" position that could either be crewed by another player, or the pilot would have to jump to on his own.

* All radar-equipped aircraft would have full icon range at night, while other aircraft would have reduced icon ranges.

Oh, and I'd LOVE it if the P-61 in-game would have the night vision goggles that can be toggled like in lyric's post.

[Karnak]

No, that would not be an accurate representation of WWII radar.

The Mk I eyeball was vastly superior if there was light to work with, being able to see farther than the radar could.  An AWACS style implementation would be wholly inaccurate.

Also, how could you list off those night fighters and leave off the best night fighter of the war?