Nightfighters

[jallan1407]

the P-61 only got 5 kills during the world war lol, def my fav plane tho. Even more than the P-38 Lightning

[SrAlvaroEd]

Nice

[justforever96]

You should check this out...go to Google, type in "MAAM P-61 Restoration". The Mid Atlantic Air Museum is making a P-61 FLY AGAIN! Rebuilding a crashed P-61, crazy amount of work going into it, ever last detail, the guns, the radar, the tires and gear, the swivel seats...it's incredible. They refurbished the original 20mm cannons, remade all the plexiglass...I mean, a TON of custom made parts. They're saving what they can, like 60% of the original stuff, which isn't bad for the shape it was in.

[blaubak]

Totally - this was faster than zero's as well. It was a twin engine prop on small pod plane. it's like putting a honda prelude against a drag racer. This video should be deleted.

[justforever96]

@blaubak The standard P-61A's and B's weren't really that fast, not faster than most single-engined planes. It was quite fast for it's size, but the really amazing bit was that it was so agile for such a behemoth. Most Widows never broke 360mph, and many Zeros could fly that fast. Personally, I think that they should have made the center pod smaller, lighter. Ditch the remote turret and station the gunner IN the turret, to fire 360deg. I love the Widow, but it was pushing "modern" a bit far.

[CWVEN]

The bombers are american "Blackwidows", night fighters.... not bomber

[justforever96]

@CWVEN The P-61 was designed as a night fighter, but by the time it came out there wasn't much for targets left. So they began night intruder missions, hanging out over enemy airfields waiting for planes to take off. And then they began night interdiction missions, carrying bombs and rockets. If enemy fighters took off to defend the field, so much the better. By 1945, they were even doing DAYTIME attack missions, although it was usually close-support and anti-shipping, closer to home.

[computerfreak12]

umm,in the description you wrote that japanese night bombers launch an attack on us airfields but those are us night bombers attacking japanese airfields

[r32adt3db]

I always wondered why the P61 had that red outline on top of it's wing. Seems it would give a nice view of the plane from an enemy fighter.

[EvilxMerlin]

Red is a very hard colour to see at night.

Why is it there? It shows where it is safe, and not safe, to walk on the wing when servicing the aircraft.

[r32adt3db]

Thank you! Mystery solved :)

[justforever96]

@r32adt3db The red lines also looks very, very cool. ;)

Red isn't really so hard to see at night, it's just a color that shows up well in the daylight but isn't OVERLY easy to see at night. Like, a green line would have showed up a tiny bit less at night, but it wouldn't have showed up in the ground crews peripheral vision so well. Notice that the cockpit lights are red too...red light doesn't hurt night vision much. You can get red lenses for flashlights too, you see soldiers using them.