Aeroplane Monthly 1980-11
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W.Thompson - Northrop's Mean Lady
P-61A-1NO 42-5501, one of the first Black Widows built by the Northrop Hawthorne, California plant. Deliveries began in October 1943, and although first models had dorsal turrets, subsequent buffeting caused them to be deleted from later aircraft.
Another view of the P-61A 42-5507 over California in 1944.
P-61A-1-NO in flight over California in 1944. This aircraft is painted in the desert paint scheme applied to Pacific Night Fighter Squadrons. Only 45 A-1s were built.
Midnight Menace of the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron, seen in France in 1945.
Some of 417th NFS P-61Bs, taken on March 3, 1945, the first day the unit flew the type. Note how the protective tape, covering all the joints, has pulled the paint off after removal.
P-61 being worked on at the end of the day, France, 1944.
Sqn CO Lt Col O. B. Johnson stands by Eugene Axtell's aircraft. Axtell was destined to become one of three Black Widow aces in Europe.
A 422nd NFS P-61A gets a new name.
P-61 with war-weary crew chief at the end of the war, taken at a base in Germany.
Robert Bolinder’s Double Trouble over England in June 1944, also of the 422nd NFS.
422nd NFS P-61As immediately after D-Day. Herman Ernst's Borrowed Time is seen in the foreground.
Another 422nd P-61, Tennessee Ridge Runner, was flown by John Anderson and is seen in France in 1944.
Gear failure on P-61A 42-5573, Lovely Lady, at its base in France, 1944. 422nd NFS pilot was Raymond A. Anderson.