Warbird Information Exchange

What are the chances of finding a serial number for this aircraft, to determine how and when it might have ended up with the Chinese?

Where would one find the serial number on a P-61?

What other one do they have stored? If they have another it has eluded all researchers so far, and I would be amazed to see photos of it, so your task is to come up with the link, should you choose to accept it

Dave

According to Baugher's P-61 site:

P-61-A's had s/n 42-39348 to 42-39397.
P-61 B's had s/n 42-39398 to 42-39757

If the s/n of the Beijing's P-61 is 42-39417 wouldn't that make it a P-61-B-1-NO?

Now that we have these great photos from China Beijing Air Museum. What discernable differences were there between the A and B models? Can they be made out in the photos to confirm A or B status of this rare bird.

The P-61B version of the Black Widow introduced the improved SCR-720C A/I radar. The P-61B also had an eight-inch longer crew nacelle. The A-model's hydraulically-operated main landing-gear doors which had experienced reliability problems in the field were replaced by mechanically-operated doors. The P-61B introduced split main landing gear doors. The split main-gear doors allowed the aft three-quarters of the doors to close back down again after the gear had been extended, preventing mud, rocks and other debris from being thrown up into the wheelwells during takeoffs or landings. A main landing gear down-lock emergency release was introduced, which allowed the pilot to release the locks in an emergency even if the entire hydraulic system malfunctioned. A safety latch was added to the main gear hydraulic valve handle to eliminate the possibility of the pilot inadvertently retracting the gear while the plane was on the ground.

One way of visually telling the difference between a P-61A and a P-61B was by an readily-noticeable access panel which was added behind the radome on the P-61B.

The B-model had a bigger and better heater system for the crew, and it had automatically- operated lower engine cowl flops, oil-cooler air exit flaps, and intercooler flaps. The oil tanks were mounted inside the engine nacelles instead of inside the outer wings. A taxi lamp was added to the landing gear strut. The aileron trim tabs were deleted, and a built-in fire extinguisher system was added.

Only the first thirty-seven of the 45 P-61A-1s were actually equipped with the dorsal turrets. In fact, more than half of all P-61As built actually had this turret deleted. One reason for this omission was that the General Electric remotely-controlled turret mechanism was urgently needed for the B-29 program. However, the primary reason was the occurrence of severe aerodynamic buffeting when the turret was being either elevated or rotated in azimuth during flight. Many flight-test hours were spent in trying to solve this problem, but it was never completely eliminated. In fact, this problem was often so severe that many P-61As in the field had the four 0.50-inch machine guns in the top turret permanently locked into the forward-firing position, being fired only by the pilot, with the gunner having no control at all. In many cases, the top turret was completely removed from the aircraft, and the cavity left behind by the deletion of the gun turret was filled up by an extra fuel tank and was faired over. In a few cases, the turret mechanism was completely removed from the aircraft and the four dorsal machine guns were secured in the upper portion of the turret cavity and covered by a nonstandard turret cover. Some of these modifications were made in the field, but others were made at forward depots before the aircraft were delivered to their operational squadrons.


The P-61B-15-NO reintroduced the dorsal turret (General Electric Type A-4), the buffeting problem caused by earlier turrets having by now been largely corrected.

Could the communists have seized a B-1-NO ?