This series is dedicated to the gallant service performed by the brave airmen of World War 2 who risked all so that we may enjoy our American way of life. The phrase “Big Brother, Little Brother” refers to the way the heavy bomber and fighter escort aircraft pilots called each other on the radio chatter.
On a personal note, my father “John” served as a flight engineer on a B-25 Mitchell out of Italy in 1944 and 1945. He made it back alive, as did my father-in-law “Danny” who served as a belly gunner on a B-24 Liberator out of Libya. “Danny” was one of the few airmen who flew in both Ploesti oil field raids to Romania (June 1942 and August 1943) and did so without so much as a scratch. He flew his 25 missions and returned to the US as a gunnery instructor (Lead, Dammit, Lead!).
Finding all the caches will display a GeoArt form of the Big Brother, Little Brother relationship on your map. The caches were not meant to be difficult to find. If you can’t find a cache, it’s probably missing. Send me a picture of the location by email, I’ll accept the find and replace the cache.
P-61 Black Widow
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. military aircraft designed specifically for night interception of aircraft, and was the first aircraft specifically designed to use radar. It was an all-metal, twin-engine, twin-boom design developed during World War II. The first test flight was made on 26 May 1942, with the first production aircraft rolling off the assembly line in October 1943.
Although not produced in the large numbers of its contemporaries, the Black Widow was effectively operated as a night-fighter by United States Army Air Forces squadrons in the European Theater, the Pacific Theater, the China Burma India Theater and the Mediterranean Theater during World War II. It replaced earlier British-designed night-fighter aircraft that had been updated to incorporate radar when it became available.
Though the P-61 proved itself very capable against the majority of German aircraft it encountered, it was clearly outclassed by the new aircraft arriving in the last months of World War II. It also lacked external fuel tanks until the last months of the war, an addition that would have extended its range and saved many doomed crews looking for a landing site in darkness and bad weather. External bomb loads would also have made the type more suitable for the ground attack role it soon took on in Europe. These problems were all addressed eventually, but too late to have the impact they might have had earlier in the war. The P-61 proved very capable against all Japanese aircraft it encountered, but saw too few of them to make a significant difference in the Pacific war effort.
Northrup P-61B Black Widow Technicals
General characteristics-
Crew: 2–3 (pilot, radar operator, optional gunner)
Length: 49 ft 7 in
Wingspan: 66 ft 0 in
Height: 14 ft 8 in
Wing area: 662.36 ft²
Empty weight: 23,450 lb
Loaded weight: 29,700 lb
Max. takeoff weight: 36,200 lb
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-2800-65W Double Wasp radial engines, 2,250 hp each
Propellers: four-bladed Curtis Electric propeller, 1 per engine
Propeller diameter: 146 in
Fuel capacity:
Internal: 640 gal of AN-F-48 100/130-octane rating gasoline
External: Up to four 165 gal or 310 gal tanks under the wings
Performance-
Maximum speed: 366 mph at 20,000 ft
Combat range: 610 mi
Ferry range: 1,900 mi with four external fuel tanks
Service ceiling: 33,100 ft
Rate of climb: 2,540 ft/min
Wing loading: 45 lb/ft²
Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb
Time to altitude: 12 min to 20,000 ft
Armament-
Guns:
4 × 20 mm Hispano M2 cannon in ventral fuselage, 200 rpg
4 × .50 in M2 Browning machine guns in remotely operated, full-traverse upper turret, 560 rpg
Bombs:
For ground attack, four bombs of up to 1,600 lb each or six 5 in HVAR unguided rockets could be carried under the wings. Some aircraft could also carry one 1,000 lb bomb under the fuselage.
Avionics-
SCR-720 (AI Mk.X) search radar
SCR-695 tail warning radar
Survivors
On display-
P-61B-15NO, s/n 42-39715 at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China.
P-61C at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.
P-61C-1NO, s/n 43-8330 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
P-61C, s/n 42-8353 at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, OH
P-61C-1NO, s/n 43-8353 at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, OH
Under restoration-
P-61B-1NO, s/n 42-39445 by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum of Reading, PA.