Check out these prototype machining china pictures:
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Northrop P-61C Black Widow
Image by Chris Devers
Evaluate & contrast:
Northrop P-61C Black widow:
* Front view
* Above view
Star Wars ARC-170 Fighter:
* Official page
* Wikia
* Wikipedia
* Toy evaluation
I put it to you that they are the Very same Thing.
* twin engines
* double-cockpit in front
* gunner’s cockpit in back
* broad wing coming out from the middle
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See a lot more images of this, and the Wikipedia report.
Particulars, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Northrop P-61C Black Widow:
The P-61 Black Widow was the 1st U.S. aircraft made to locate and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in negative climate, a feat created attainable by the use of on-board radar. The prototype first flew in 1942. P-61 combat operations began just right after D-Day, June six, 1944, when Black Widows flew deep into German airspace, bombing and strafing trains and road visitors. Operations in the Pacific started at about the exact same time. By the finish of Planet War II, Black Widows had noticed combat in every single theater and had destroyed 127 enemy aircraft and 18 German V-1 buzz bombs.
The Museum’s Black Widow, a P-61C-1-NO, was delivered to the Army Air Forces in July 1945. It participated in cold-climate tests, high-altitude drop tests, and in the National Thunderstorm Project, for which the prime turret was removed to make area for thunderstorm monitoring gear.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Northrop Aircraft Inc.
Date:
1943
Nation of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 450 x 1500cm, 10637kg, 2000cm (14ft 9 3/16in. x 49ft 2 9/16in., 23450.3lb., 65ft 7 three/8in.)
Long Description:
The P-61 Black Widow was the first United States aircraft designed from the start off to locate and destroy other aircraft at night and in negative weather. It served in combat for only the final year of World War II but flew in the European, Mediterranean, Pacific, and China-Burma-India theaters. Black Widow crews destroyed 127 enemy aircraft and 18 robot V-1 buzz bombs.
Jack Northrop’s big fighter was born in the course of the dark days of the Battle of Britain and the London Blitz in 1940. British successes against German daylight bombers forced the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) to shift to night bombing. By the time Royal Air Force (RAF) Spitfires could launch, climb out, and then attempt to intercept these raids, the bombers crews had normally dropped their loads and turned for house. An aircraft was necessary to patrol the skies over England for up to seven hours during the evening, and then follow radar vectors to attack German aircraft prior to they reached their target. U.S. Army Air Corps officers noted this requirement and decided that America must have a night fighter if and when it entered the war.
The Army awarded a contract to Northrop on January 30, 1941. The resulting design featured twin tail booms and rudders for stability when the aircraft closed in behind an intruder. It was a huge aircraft with a large fuel load and two potent engines. Armament evolved into 4 20 mm cannons mounted in the belly firing forward and a powered, remote-controlled turret on prime of the center fuselage equipped with four .50 cal. machine guns. The 3-man crew consisted of the pilot, a gunner seated behind him, and a radar observer/gunner at the rear behind the gun turret. Only the pilot could fire the cannons but any of the 3 could operate the machine guns.
Simultaneously, operate was proceeding, at a laboratory run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies, to create the airborne radar set. The Army tested an early style in a Douglas B-18 in 1941. The a lot-enhanced SCR-520 set was ready by early 1942. Meanwhile, Army enthusiasm for the XP-61 created another contract on March 10, 1941, for 13 service-test YP-61s. Even ahead of these airplanes flew, Northrop received orders for 410 production machines! Northrop test pilot Vance Breeze flew the aircraft on May 26, 1942. Despite the fact that the Black Widow was almost as massive as a medium bomber, it was a correct fighter. The only prohibited flight maneuvers had been outside loops, sustained inverted flight, and deliberate spins.
As Northrop sophisticated the style toward production, supply difficulties arose and modifications became necessary. The 4-gun prime turret was the exact same type fitted to the best forward position on the Boeing B-29 Superfortress (see NASM collection) and that bomber had production priority over the P-61. As a outcome, several hundred P-61s did not have this turret. Those that did experienced buffeting when the turret was traversed from side to side and a fix took time. By October 1943, the very first P-61s were coming off the line. Education started quickly, and the very first evening fighters arrived in the European Theater by March 1944. Combat operations began just after D-Day (June six) and the Black Widows speedily departed from their original role as defensive interceptors and became aggressors. They flew deep into German airspace, bombing and strafing trains and road targeted traffic and creating travel difficult for the enemy by day and at night.
P-61s arrived in the Pacific Theater at about the very same time as the European Black Widows. For years, the Japanese had operated lone bombers over Allied targets at night and now U. S. fighters could locate and attack them. However, on June 30, 1944, a Mitsubishi BETTY (see NASM collection) became the very first P-61 kill in the Pacific. Soon, Black Widows controlled the night skies. On the evening of August 14-15, a P-61 named "Lady in the Dark" by her crew encountered an intruding Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon) OSCAR (see NASM collection) and at some point forced it into the sea without firing a shot. Even though the war was officially over, no one was positive that all of the Japanese had heard the message and stopped fighting. The American night fighters flew once again the subsequent evening and "Lady in the Dark" again located a target. It was a Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki (Demon) TOJO and the fighters maneuvered wildly as they attempted to obtain an benefit. The P-61 crew lost and reacquired the Ki-44 several occasions then lastly lost it for good and returned to base. The next day ground troops located the wrecked TOJO. In the darkness, Lady in the Dark’s crew had forced the Japanese pilot to fly into the ground, once again with out firing a shot.
With the war over, the Army cancelled additional production. Northrop had built 706 aircraft which includes 36 with a very modified center fuselage. These F-15As (later redesignated RF-61C) mounted a number of cameras in the nose and proved capable reconnaissance platforms. Several of these airplanes participated in the very first great aerial photographic survey of the Pacific islands. A few, plus some unique objective P-61s, stayed in active service until 1950.
NASM’s Black Widow is a P-61C-1-NO, U.S. Army Air Forces serial number 43-8330. Northrop delivered it to the Army on July 28, 1945. By October 18, this P-61 was flying at Ladd Field, Alaska, in cold weather tests and it remained there till March 30, 1946. This airplane later moved to Pinecastle Air Force Base, Florida, for participation in the National Thunderstorm Project. The project’s objective was to find out far more about thunderstorms and to use this understanding to much better safeguard civil and military airplanes that operated close to them. The U. S. Climate Bureau and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) undertook the study with cooperation from the Army Air Forces and Navy. With its radar and certain flight traits, the P-61 was capable of obtaining the most turbulent regions of a storm, penetrating them, and returning crew and instruments intact for detailed study.
Pinecastle personnel removed the guns and turret from 43-8330 in July 1946 to make space for new equipment. In September, the aircraft moved to Clinton County Army Air Base, Ohio, where it remained until January 1948. The Air Force then assigned the aircraft to the Flight Test Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Right after declaring the airplane surplus in 1950, the Air Force stored it at Park Ridge, Illinois, on October three along with important aircraft destined for the National Air Museum.
But 43-8830 was not carried out flying. NACA asked the Smithsonian to lend them the aircraft for use in yet another particular program. The committee wanted to investigate how aerodynamic shapes behaved when dropped from high altitude. The Black Widow arrived at the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Naval Air Station Moffett Field, California, on February 14, 1951. NACA returned the aircraft and delivered it to the Smithsonian at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on August ten, 1954. When the engines shut down for the last time, this P-61 had accumulated only 530 total flight hours. Smithsonian personnel trucked it to the Paul Garber Facility in Suitland, Maryland. In 2006, the aircraft was preserved and assembled at the Udvar-Hazy Center. The three distinct paint schemes from its previous service life have been revealed by cautiously removing person layers of paint.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: View over Globe War Two aviation wing, which includes Japanese planes and B-29 Enola Gay
Image by Chris Devers
See more images of this, and the Wikipedia article.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko (Moonlight) IRVING:
Initially made as a 3-seat, daylight escort fighter plane by the Nakajima Aeroplane Business, Ltd., and flown in 1941, the IRVING was modified as a evening fighter in May of 1943 and shot down two American B-17 bombers to prove its capability. The Gekko (which means moonlight) was redesigned to hold only two crewmen so that an upward firing gun could be mounted exactly where the observer as soon as sat. Almost 5 hundred J1N1 aircraft, such as prototypes, escort, reconnaissance, and evening fighters had been constructed for the duration of Globe War II. A sizeable quantity have been also utilised as Kamikaze aircraft in the Pacific. The couple of that survived the war have been scrapped by the Allies.
This J1N1 is the final remaining in the planet. It was transported from Japan to the U.S. where it was flight tested by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1946. The Gekko then flew to storage at Park Ridge, IL, and was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The restoration of this aircraft, completed in 1983, took a lot more than 4 years and 17,000 man-hours to achieve.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Nakajima Hikoki K. K.
Date:
1942
Country of Origin:
Japan
Dimensions:
Overall: 15ft 1 1/8in. x 41ft 11 15/16in., 10670.3lb., 55ft 9 five/16in. (460 x 1280cm, 4840kg, 1700cm)
Components:
All-metal, monocoque construction airplane
Physical Description:
Twin-engine, traditional layout with tailwheel-type landing gear.
Armament: (2) 20 mm fixed upward firing cannon
Engines: (two) Nakajima Sakae 21 (NK1F, Ha35- 21) 14- cylinder air-cooled radial 1,130 horsepower (metric)
• • • • •
See a lot more images of this, and the Wikipedia report.
Particulars, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of Planet War II and the first bomber to property its crew in pressurized compartments. Even though designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 discovered its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a selection of aerial weapons: standard bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the very first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. 3 days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum close to Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance climate reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Fantastic Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on each missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.
Date:
1945
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 five/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Supplies:
Polished general aluminum finish
Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, common late-Planet War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on reduce left nose.