Probably the most well known Northrop aircraft prior to the B-2 Stealth bomber, the P-61 was America's largest fighter and only specially built night fighter of WWII. In fact, the only other specially build night fighter by any of the warring powers was the He-219, an equally impressive aircraft, and a bit more successful in terms of knocking down planes due to the greater number of targets!

The P-61 WarBird Tech book isn't a history of the operational use of the plane. Though there are some references to its operation in the book, it is the development and nuts & bolts of the plane that are the reason for being of the WarBird Tech series.

Let me give you a bit of a quick run-thorough of the chapters so you can see what's in here:

• Creating the Black Widow

• Operational Test & Evaluation

• Anatomy of a P-61

• Flying the P-61

• Armament and Radar

• Northrop's Hot Rods

• Final Chapter

The majority of photos are straight from the Northrop archives (or the various official photographers  used by Northrop) and taken during all phases of the development and testing of the aircraft. Included are under construction images as well as those of various tests conducted with the aircraft. A goodly number of sections from the tech manual of various systems is also included as are some rather rare color photos. Being a night fighter, operational images are a bit tough to come by!

What really shines in this edition are the number of close-up images that are just what a lot of modelers look for when doing a project. Though this isn't the easiest read, mainly due to the rather dry, but accurate telling of various technical aspects of the plane (it reads like a tech manual), it is a book that any modeler or aviation enthusiast wishing to know just that kind of thing should have on their shelves.

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