Pinned against the hangar wall by a floor-filling mass of airplanes from a B-25 to a Pietenpol, The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s P-61 Black Widow restoration project seems unchanged from my last visit in 2014. Wearing its cowled but propless Pratt & Whitney R-28000 engines, it stands patiently on its tricycle gear waiting for its wings.
Those wings, which extend from the port and starboard nacelles, are under construction in another hangar, said Russ Strine, MAAM president. “They are the last big structural item left to do.” While the project’s completion is within sight, there is no predetermine date for the Black Widow’s first flight because the project is funded by donations and much of the work is done by volunteers. But it will fly; rest assured of that.
Working my way through the maze of airplanes on the hangar floor for a closer look, it’s clear to see that the B-25 and P-61 are twin-engine airplanes of similar size. But two engines and a shared weight of 30,000 pounds are where the similarities end. On the floor under the Black Widow’s right 2,000-hp engine was its four-bladed prop. Answering my question about the left side, Strine said, “We now have 2 complete props for the P-61B. The only other airplane to share this same blade and hub is the Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver.”
That was a surprise that struck home because my father, a World War II naval aviator, flew the SB2c. It was powered by the Wright R-2600, which is only 200 cubic inches different from the P-61’s engines, so that seemed to make sense.
More surprising was learning that the right engine was a zero-time P-61 QEC. To facilitate a Quick Engine Change, all of the aircraft-specific accessories, fittings, and mounts are already connected to the engine. The odds of such a find for such a rare airplane are incalculable, “but people contact all the time with items,” said Strine.
The top turret of four .50 caliber machine guns is, however, another matter. “Two are known to exist,” said Strine, “and neither owner wants to sell.” Only four Black Widows exist today, and if MAAM can acquire a turret, the museum’s P-61 will not be the only flying example, but the only one with a turret.
Of the 706 examples of all Black Widow variants built, only four are know to exist today. The examples the National Museum of the United States Air Force and the National Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center are related by their service in the post-war Project Thunderstorm. Left at its base after the war, the fourth is at the Beijing Air and Space Museum at Beihang University in Beijing, China.
Ducking under the logo of the 550th Night Fighter Squadron affixed to the MAAM Widow’s nose and sticking my head into the forward cockpit through the door in the nosewheel well, is where most of the work now being done on the airplane is clear. All of the plumbing and wiring is now installed, said Strine, and “we’re just tying up and final detailing the wiring.”
Getting the P-61 Black Widow back in the air is not the only project underway at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum. The hangar where it now resides “is certainly tight,” said Strine, “but we’re about to remedy that with construction of an additional hangar.” Seeing the fully assembled night fighter is more spacious accommodations is reason enough for another visit to Reading, Pennsylvania. — Scott Spangler, Editor
