Northrop P-61 Black Widow

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The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engined 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. Named for the North American spider Latrodectus mactans, it was an all-metal, twin-engined, twin-boom design armed with four forward-firing 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano M2 autocannons in the lower fuselage, and four .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in a dorsal gun turret. It was developed during the war, and its first test flight was made on 26 May 1942. The first production aircraft rolled off the assembly line in October 1943. Although not produced in the large numbers of its contemporaries, the Black Widow was operated effectively as a night fighter by United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) squadrons in the European Theater, Pacific Theater, China Burma India Theater, and Mediterranean Theater...

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