The P-61A was Northrop Aviation's first really successful aircraft design. I mean successful in that a lot of aircraft were sold and the profits from it were enough to keep the company going. Though a normal looking aircraft, the P-61 did have an innovation or two. The biggest was the remotely controlled upper turret. As with most innovations, the turret was the cause of some problems getting it into service. As a result, most P-61As were delivered without it. Not having the turret meant not needing the gunner to operate it so most Black Widows entered combat as a two man aircraft, the missing gunner and turret only adding to the performance of the aircraft.

Like most Pacific black widows, the aircraft of the 418th NFS were mostly used for night intruder work as there was little enemy air activity. These particular markings are for 'Alley R' a P-61A that flew with the 418th.  For those of you who wish your DML or Airfix P-61 to be a bit different from the rest, White Dog has done a very short run of dry transfers to replace the nose markings that come in the kit. This sheet also has the correct white serial number letters that the 418th used. All you have to do is to paint on the red/white tail band or use decal stripes. 

These sheets are a very limited production run of 50 and only a handful are left. If you desire one, these sheets are only available by mail from White Dog. You can contact them at:

Don Fenton
11629 James Grant Dr.
El Paso, TX  79936

You can e-mail Don at dpfenton@earthlink.net for more information.

Review copy courtesy of White Dog Decals. Thanks for your support. 

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