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On the night of 14 August 1945, a P-61B of the 548th Night Fighter Squadron named Lady in the Dark was unofficially credited with the last Allied air victory before VJ Day. [ 2 ] [ page needed ] The P-61 was also modified to create the F-15 Reporter photo-reconnaissance aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces and subsequently the United ...
Its mission was to train either new graduates of Training Command advanced flying schools or transition experienced pilots into the P-61 Black Widow night fighter. It trained them in the flight characteristics of the aircraft and also night fighter interceptor techniques prior to the operational squadrons or replacement pilots being deployed to ...
At the time the P-70 was the only American night fighter available. [5] Besides routine transition training in the night fighter, the pilots also completed calibration, instrument, navigation flights, and numerous target missions in this period. [6] 417th Night Fighter Squadron P-61 in flight over the Bavarian Alps.
During the run-up to D-Day, the squadron trained with Royal Air Force night fighter units against Luftwaffe raiders who intruded the night skies over England. It was the first American squadron in England equipped with the Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter. After the landings in France, the mission of the squadron became the air defense ...
6th Night Fighter Squadron: Nellis AFB: F-35A "Gators" Redesignated 6th Weapons Squadron ... P-61: Inactivated 1944 425th Fighter Squadron: Luke AFB: F-16C "Black Widows"
425th Squadron P-61 [note 3] The squadron was established on 23 November 1943, as the 425th Night Fighter Squadron at Orlando AAB, Florida and activated on 1 December. It initially trained with the Douglas P-70 Havoc night fighter at Orlando, although it also trained with the Northrop YP-61 Black Widow.
The 349th Night Fighter Squadron (349th NFS) is an inactive United States Air Force unit which specialized in training airmen to utilize night fighters as nighttime interceptors. Its last assignment was with the 481st Night Fighter Operational Training Group, based at Hammer Field, California. First activated in October 1942, the unit was ...
The first USAAF unit using the P-61 did not move to Britain until February 1944; operational use did not start until the summer, and was limited throughout the war. Colonel Winston Kratz, director of night-fighter training in the USAAF, considered the P-61 as adequate in its role, "It was a good night fighter. It did not have enough speed". [35]