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I agree harescrambled, not like any P-38 I have viewed..
...the aircraft in the photo above is larger than a P-38...
...also, the vertical stabilizers on P-38 extend below the fuselage and are oval in shape...
(edit to add photo above)
That is the P-61 Black Widow night fighter the US developed in WWII. I believe the 20mm cannon placement is optimized for attacking from below & behind at night, with the copious radar equipment in the nose. The Germans had pioneered the upward firing cannons for night fighters that I think they called Schragemuzik ("night music") to attack the British night bombing raids.
That is a Northrup P-61 Black Widow, not a P-38.
Edit: Jinx, speedman.
I stand corrected! Appreciate the clarification, gentlemen.
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Ah, sorry, I only chimed in because I was surprised no one had identified it yet.
That's because it's not.
This is...
This is the type of P-38 I was aware of :
After ShellyMX's reply I thought, that, fair enough, like many 'planes, it was say, a 'Heavy' variant of the P-38. Because it was a considerably larger 'plane.
I had no idea of the P-61s existence.
Cool, indeed.
BREAKING: The United States Heritage Air Force Squadron has just announced plans to resurrect a Convair B-36 from the Boneyard and restore it to full flying condition
The legendary "Peacemaker" will take to the skies once again as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration, culminating in a massive airshow this September at Brookley Air Force Base, Alabama.
Seriously hoping this isn't an April fool's post on the aviation site.
I had no idea it existed either! Obviously. Lol
I guess this now qualifies as historic.
Kenny Loggins now jamming in my gray matter…
Ay Carumba ! : 6 Radial (?) Piston Engines, and 4 Jet (?) engines!
4 burning, 6 turning!
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engine United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first U.S. aircraft conceived from the outset and deployed operationally specifically as a night fighter, incorporating onboard radar as part of the original airframe design.
Yep the Black Widow was a badass aircraft, the first night fighter. Jan's father was a pilot in that aircraft, but she told me that he never talked about the war. Just like her, he was a very humble and kind person. I wish I took the time to get to know him better, one of my regrets in life.
Badass video of the Warthog kicking ASS! 😎
https://youtu.be/5tKnAg6ZN-o?si=j8YKKNLK_xhK6g40
Drove past Fairford recently. I know very little about planes but B52s are not hard to spot. Lots of activity and quite eerie to see and hear these for the few days we were in the area.
Takes a lot of runway to get this beamouth off the ground!
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DiTbXmayg/
Pit Row
I was dragging a toolbox behind a row of Buffs at Offutt AFB way back and a tail gun started tracking me. I ain't gonna lie...I was scart.🙃
An A-10 Thunderbolt II successfully returned to base despite sustaining more than 150 holes from enemy ground fire during a combat mission.✈🇺🇸
When Kim Campbell’s aircraft was struck by a surface-to-air missile over Iraq In 2003, she instantly knew that ejecting was not the safest option.
“At first it caught me off guard, but I instantly knew the aircraft had taken a hit,” Campbell said. “There was no time to hesitate—ejecting would’ve meant coming down right into the heart of Baghdad, which was far too risky.”
The strike knocked out two of the A-10’s hydraulic systems—damage that would typically make the aircraft uncontrollable. But the Warthog is built for moments like this. By engaging its backup manual control mode, Campbell managed to keep the jet stable and fly it to safety.
Against the odds, she flew the heavily damaged A-10 back to base and landed safely.
“It was the best landing I’ve ever made,” Campbell later said.
Her calm decision-making and exceptional airmanship earned her the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism, one of the U.S. Air Force’s highest honors.✈️🇺🇸
I am NO authority, just an aviation enthusiast with a little insight into this incredible aircraft, Northrop Aviation’s P-61. One of my lifelong best buddies, had a family member that FLEW the P-61 in combat during WWII, off Saipan & Tinian from late summer 1944, until the end of the war.
I had the opportunity to sit with them while my buddy quizzed his great Uncle (his granddad’s brother!) about the P-61…he is a master-scale modeler, intent on building & flying a scale replica of his Uncle’s fighter from that incredible chapter of his life.
Thumbing through his scrapbook from that era with him was a once in a lifetime opportunity! He was a pleasant, typically modest WWII man, who was uncomfortable talking about his experiences and what he and his combat buddies went through, but he loved talking about the P-61! He described it as obscenely fast and agile, and NOT for a twin engine plane, but fast compared to the other fighters and he absolutely SWORE that the P-61 could turn inside any contemporary peer of the day!
(Pic is my son at 4 years old, standing in front of the scale model! 116” wingspan / 48 pounds w/every surface detail, functional roll spoilers, pneumatic brakes, with scale retractable gear/gear doors, all sequenced to simulate hydraulic lag etc! He won / 1st at a Scale Master event in Houston Texas in 1997 w/this model!)
The P-61 was designed & built from the ground up to be a fighter first! Due to the weight of the radar gear, a twin engine was determined to be most suitable with a narrow fighter style fuselage, with crew sitting in a single file arrangement. Pilot & Armament officer up front, radar operator sitting in the rear! There was NO pass through access front to rear as the center portion of fuselage was packed full of radar equipment and ammo for the four 50 caliber guns in the electric turret on the roof, and the four 20mm cannons in the belly firing forward. He claimed the electric turrets were quite unreliable and they would often just fix them in place & zero them to converge with the four cannons. Several other unique features were incorporated, most notably, functional role spoilers rather than a conventional aileron!
Radar was so primitive at that time that the antenna (in the unpainted fiberglass radome) would make a vertical sweep, then a horizontal sweep and would display each on a separate display scope, with the radar operator vectoring the pilot until any target would be centered up in both horizontal & vertical scopes, then they would hunt the night sky for the undamped flame the Japanese aircraft typical had in the exhaust! Once a target was located they’d line up & turn loose all four guns & cannons with devastating result!
The P-61 pictured in flight would be an A model, as the first 60 or so of the 706 that were built, were painted with the same Olive Drab many other combat aircraft of the day were painted, before the decision to paint them black was made.
The P-61 was a HIGHLY classified aircraft & guarded very closely throughout its operational life, and even in his twilight, his Uncle was hesitant to speak about ANY classified info even 45 years later, but he was happy & proud of having been a fighter pilot and was credited with several shot-down when WWII concluded.
🇺🇸 🫡 😎 👍❗️
Your son is a giant if that plane is at scale.
When my buddy decided it was time to park the P-61 model, rather than selling it to another RC flier, he pulled out all the flight gear, both 55cc engines and donated it to the Air & Space section at the Oklahoma Science Museum where it’s hangs on display to this day!
😊 👍❗️
NOW BACK TO FULL-SCALE COOLNESS! 🤪
Vulcan's...
Remind me again why they want to retire the Warthog...... what other aircraft could survive this today?
An A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog) successfully returned to base after sustaining more than 150 battle damage holes from intense enemy ground fire during a combat mission. Despite the severity of the damage, the aircraft remained flyable, and the pilot landed safely without injury. ✈🇺🇸💪
The strike knocked out two of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems, which are typically responsible for controlling its flight surfaces. In most situations, this level of damage would make the aircraft impossible to fly. However, the A-10 is built with a unique survivability feature known as manual reversion.
This system provides a purely mechanical backup, allowing the pilot to control the aircraft without hydraulic assistance through direct linkages to the control surfaces. By engaging manual reversion, the pilot managed to retain control and successfully return the badly damaged aircraft to base.
The A-10 was later repaired and returned to operational service, further demonstrating the aircraft’s exceptional durability and combat survivability. Captain Campbell’s skill and calm decision-making under fire earned widespread recognition and helped solidify the A-10’s legendary reputation among both pilots and ground forces who rely on its close air support capabilities.🇺🇸💪
He Hog has excelled at Drone Elimination at an unbelievable level. Its ability to loiter and truly pretext ground troops is quite literally unparalleled. In the last DUDE rescue, the A10 heroically fulfilled the “Sandy” role and REMOVED threats to the rescue op.
So, where is…what is…our next Warthog?!
The closest airframe, capability-wise, are out AHs and in some cases…the 130 Talon(BIG Suppression Ops) …but, over-all “time on mission”, the Hog is THE airframe for the job of loitering and providing ground-pounder protection.
We need a New Hog!💪🏼🇺🇸
I had the opportunity to check out the cockpit of an A10 back in '94. Damn thing was almost completely analog. I'm sure it's been upgraded since, but back then, it looked like a modern plane with a 1960s cockpit. Definitely a jet that needs to stay in the inventory for a while.
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