Author Topic: We Don't Need Or Want No Damn P61 (Read 425 times)

WBHoncho · « **on:** March 28, 2002, 02:06:38 AM »

our realistic chances:

It' a shame too because what a stand out from crowd this one would be!

MadBirdCZ · « **Reply #1 on:** March 28, 2002, 02:11:38 AM »

no image just red cross... ?

and maybe we don't need it but I want it anyway

WBHoncho · « **Reply #2 on:** March 28, 2002, 02:25:15 AM »

I had the link wrong at first.

Seriously though I would pay up to 100 bucks to have this in next patch. Any other takers?

and dont even think I am not serious

MadBirdCZ · « **Reply #3 on:** March 28, 2002, 02:28:41 AM »

Strange... Shes missing the forward firing gun turret...

WBHoncho · « **Reply #4 on:** March 28, 2002, 02:30:37 AM »

evidently most of them were, damn thing shook too much.

MadBirdCZ · « **Reply #5 on:** March 28, 2002, 02:43:19 AM »

Hmm from what I was reading the turred was ment to be powered and remote controlled but due to excess vibrations it was mounted as a fixed and front firing only on later models...? but maybe i was reading wrong books...

WBHoncho · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2002, 02:44:59 AM »

I am not seeing alot about night radar - but something else:

Dudes, it would seem most of it was still visual (star scope-ish)

WBHoncho · « **Reply #7 on:** March 28, 2002, 02:58:30 AM »

of course there is sadly no data avaialble for this bird

What it really come down too is these damn things are alot of work.

This is such a beautiful plane though, I gotta think someone in HTC probably has 2 or 3 versions on the hard drive already

I made like 3 plastic models when I was a kid, I still remember this one.

Do it for the 'ol farts HT before we all die

God knows even you wondered about this plane in your youth.

repectfully submitted in public forum:

Honcho

LtHans · « **Reply #8 on:** March 28, 2002, 03:55:15 AM »

I don't understand this P-61 Fetish at all.....I'm truely serious.

What is so important about the thing that makes it desirable? To me its in the same league as the Me110 and Mosquito...lots of firepower, but that is it. To put it bluntly, it is a target, not a killer.

The only reason to even think of the P61 at all is if night fighting in general is implemented. With that you could even skip the P-61 and just add the radar pod equiped F4U for an American night fighter along with radar equiped Mosquito and Ju88 or Me110.

MadBirdCZ · « **Reply #9 on:** March 28, 2002, 04:00:47 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by LtHans
What is so important about the thing that makes it desirable? To me its in the same league as the Me110 and Mosquito...lots of firepower, but that is it. To put it bluntly, it is a target, not a killer.

Well if you looking at it from this point of view then we really should get P-61 in AH because US planese is missing a plane from this so called 'league' and Im sure P-61 would fit in just nicely

Shes elegant, shes black and shes a killer...

AKcurly · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2002, 05:28:36 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by LtHans
I don't understand this P-61 Fetish at all.....I'm truely serious.

The only reason to even think of the P61 at all is if night fighting in general is implemented. With that you could even skip the P-61 and just add the radar pod equiped F4U for an American night fighter along with radar equiped Mosquito and Ju88 or Me110.

Yes, it's the night fighting. Many of us don't enjoy the night. However, Hitech has done such a masterful job of implementing it, how the heck can we complain?

Night fighters would give us something to do rather than leave the arena when night falls.

curly

Taiaha · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2002, 07:39:11 AM »

Actually, the P61 was a good fighter as well, that's why it's one of the few twin-engine planes to bear the pursuit code. It was very fast (so fast that they had to install a complex spoiler system to stop pilots over-shooting their targets) and pretty maneuverable. In fact at one point the USAAF had a fly-off with P61s against Mossies and kicked some serious butt. Is it going to outmaneuvre a zeke? Probably not, but it's a respectable entry into the B&Z class (and with a helluva lot of boom). It would also be nice to have this and maybe a Beaufighter and an HE 219, nightfighters that could take advantage of the fact that we actually have night modelled in AH!

The turret created severe buffeting in the A version, was deleted in the first 500 or so of the B model, but then was put back when they solved the buffetting with some minor tail and boom redesigns. Most B models and all C models were equipped with the turret which could be rotated or fixed forward. In practice it was usually fixed forward, because by that stage they had, for the most part, dropped the third crew member in the rear.

So yeah, somewhere down the line we need this stinking plane . . .

Ripsnort · « **Reply #12 on:** March 28, 2002, 07:56:43 AM »

Many of you know I've been trying to get the P61 since Warbirds beta (CK)...going on 7 years now. It served in Germany as well as the Pacific (Many don't know that!) It was originally painted Olive drab (good for AH!) and later Black. It had the characteristics of the P38 and good climb ability. Many here are asking for the P61, its about time we get it me thinks!

I'll make a promise to Pyro that I will NEVER post on AGW again if he gives us the P61

On the night of July 14/15, 1944, Lt. Herman E.Ernst was patrolling the skies over the English
Channel in his Northrop P-61 Black Widow, "Borrowed Time", when British radar controllers
vectored them to an incoming target. Diving from 10,000ft, pilot Ernst spotted the flickering flame
from the engine of a V-1 pilotless drone. With the speed from the dive the P-61 gradually
overtook the V-1, and Ernst opened fire, hitting the V-1 and sending it into a dive. The V-1
explode, becoming the first victory for the P-61 in the European theatre. Lt Ernst went on to
become one of the US's few night fighter aces with 7 confirmed victories.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #13 on:** March 28, 2002, 08:03:21 AM »

A wealth of information can be found here about the P61 and a restoration project that is going on:
http://www.maam.org/p61/p61cont.html

Quote

The need for a true night fighter aircraft was well demonstrated during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Aircraft used to counter German night attacks operated by
moonlight, searchlights, and were only infrequently aided by ground-based radar, and were, as a result, not very effective.

At the direction of the Air Corp's Carl A. Spaatz, John Northrop submitted a ground up night fighter design, which, designated as the XP-61, first flew on May
26, 1942.

The Black Widow was the first aircraft totally designed as a night fighter. Its innovative slotted flaps and spoiler ailerons allowed operation from short airstrips
and improved handling; the radar carried in its nose made it the dominant force in the night skies of Europe and the South Pacific. From July 6, 1944, when it
claimed its first victory, to war's end, the P-61 distinguished itself as one of America's most unique fighting machines. After the war, P-61s were used in
reconnaissance, weather research, and flight testing. The first American flight ejections were made from a P-61.

Only four P-61 aircraft are known to exist today. The Museum's P-61 is a B model, the 232nd produced. Assigned to the 13th Air Force, 13th Fighter
Command, it was the first P-61 delivered to the 550th Night Fighter Squadron at Hollandia, New Guinea. After crashing on a test flight it lay unrecovered for
more than 40 years before being retrieved by Museum volunteers.

SPECIFICATIONS:

ENGINES:
WING SPAN:
LENGTH:
HEIGHT:
MAXIMUM SPEED:
ARMAMENT:
Two Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Radials (2,000 HP)
66 Feet
49 Feet, 5 Inches
14 Feet, 8 Inches
366 MPH
Four 20mm Cannon

straffo · « **Reply #14 on:** March 28, 2002, 08:15:52 AM »

lovely !
I want one

(one of the common point between Ripsnort and me ...we both love this plane ...

)