There are only four Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighters known. Of those four, only one is under active restoration, and not just restoration, but to fly. James Kightly recounts the story of this machine, which was the subject of an epic recovery and restoration project driven by WW II veteran Eugene ‘Pappy’ Strine, co-founder of the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.
On the 10 January 1945, a crew led by Second Lieutenant Logan ‘Red’ Southfield, of the 550th Night Fighter Squadron, USAAF, climbed aboard an almost new P-61B Black Widow at Hollandia Airfield (today, know as Jayapura) in West Papua on a training flight. Minutes later it lay wrecked on the side of Mount Cyclops at just over 5,000 feet altitude.
Remarkably, the crew survived the crash, but the aircraft was unrecoverable, and after the secret radar was destroyed, abandoned.
Widow’s peak
The crew had been testing the climb performance of their new aircraft. After two high speed passes low over the flat airstrip and failed attempts to climb clear of the 7,000 foot summit of Cyclops, ending with a break to the side, a third attempt was started with a dive and a top-speed roar over the airfield - but in the climb the P-61 stalled and pancaked onto the mountain. Despite their remarkable survival, the crew were far from out of the woods both figuratively and in reality.
The Radar Operator, Lieutenant Ben Goldstein, had received a significant head wound, and the pilot was badly injured after a fall trying to climb down the mountain to get help. With a Stinson L-5 overflight establishing that there were survivors, two parties set out from the airfield to rescue the airmen; an (ultimately successful) mission that took several days with the ever-present risk of attack by ‘stay behind’ Japanese soldiers.
Whispers of a widow
For many years the aircraft lay abandoned on the mountainside, until, in the 1970s, Pennsylvania airfield and warbird operator Eugene ‘Pappy’ Strine, heard about it from a man who’d suggested it to the Confederate Air Force (CAF) as a possible recovery operation that would fill a gap in their collection. Not surprisingly, the CAF declined, but Gene was very interested.
Eugene (Gene) Strine had been in the US Navy in W.W.II, completing the aviation machinist mate school, flight engineer and gunnery school at Jacksonville, Florida. He served in VP-74, which operated Martin PBM Mariners at Floyd Bennett Field in New York to fly antisubmarine and convoy coverage in the North Atlantic, staying with VP-74 when it operated along the North American Eastern coast extending to South America, Panama, and even the Galapagos Islands.
After opening negotiations with the local authorities, and clearing that the USAF had no further interest in the machine, in December 1980 Gene and his son Russ Strine founded the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum (see box RIGHT) as a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit educational organisation.
This enabled the Museum to act as a legitimate body to request salvage rights for the P-61 from the Indonesians. After complex, frustrating, and challenging negotiations, by 1984 permission for the recovery was granted. The aircraft was confirmed as Northrop P-61B-1-NO, 43-39445.
Widow unveiled
First there was a reconnaissance. As author Bob Chubb recounted, "The expedition team struggled on their way up the mountain, climbing up inclines as steep as 85 degrees. After nearly nine hours of hiking and through a near Herculean effort, expedition sponsor Al Wenger and the late famed historian and aviation author Jeffery Ethell were the only inspection team members to make it all the way to the aircraft with the aid of local Dani tribesmen acting as guides.
Incredibly, the aircraft, although banged-up when stalling through the trees, appeared to be structurally sound.
"The low humidity that was present at this high elevation and jungle vegetation that quickly engulfed the aircraft covering it with moss and vines, helped to prevent the onset of corrosion. Aiding to the further protection of the aircraft was the large elevated mountainside rock pile on which it was perched, thus protecting it from contact against the jungle floor.
"Upon closer inspection of the aircraft, some of the moss was scraped away and the aluminum below glistened, air remained in the tires, hydraulic fluid remained in the lines, gas remained in the fuel tanks and oil remained in the engines. The exploratory expedition team was elated and plans were immediately made to start the recovery efforts.”
40 years after the aircraft crashed, on January 10 1985, a team led by Gene Strine was in the midst of the first year of the seasonal recovery operation – a massive challenge, involving local built huts; continual re-negotiations with the Indonesian authorities; protection by the military from a local tribal leader claiming the wreck; another attempted recovery by another group; and workers having to rope themselves to the aircraft or trees to avoid sliding over a nearby cliff.
Finally, in the 1989 effort, a helicopter lift got the remaining larger parts off the mountain, and crating up the disassembled aircraft started. Meanwhile, negotiations had resulted in a trade for a Boeing Stearman for the Indonesian Air Force Museum, which was crated and sent from America, releasing the dismantled P-61 ‘kit’ to be shipped to the USA in 1991.
Pennsylvania P-61
The Black Widow arrived in Baltimore, Maryland on schedule, during the first week of April 1991, having sailed from Jayapura in February. Meanwhile, at the museum, work had started on drawings and jigs, ready for when the aircraft arrived. A new workshop where the fuselage was to be rebuilt was completed in 1995.
News of the recovery passed around the warbird industry, and the organiser of the other recovery attempt offered and sold MAAM his collection of P-61 material, previously collected by a water bombing organisation. Shortly afterwards a substantial collection of equipment and parts arrived. Meanwhile in North Dakota, a complete Pratt & Whitney R2800- 65 Quick Engine Change (QEC) assembly was located, filling another critical requirement.
The demands of such a major restoration can perhaps be better imagined than described, considering that only two other examples are available for reference in the USA, and of those, one, the National Museum of the USAF’s example, is incomplete internally and with some parts mocked up.
Although the aircraft, when recovered, was structurally complete, when the complex and demanding restoration to flying condition is completed, it is expected to still have between 65 per cent and 70 per cent original material, a remarkable achievement in the circumstances, given that a good deal of the original was missing or will be (due to crash damage) unable to be refurbished and tested to an acceptable airworthy certified standard.
Into the black
By February 2008, the centre pod was complete and the tail booms were connected to the inner wings. And this June, at the twentieth anniversary ‘World War II Weekend’ show, the P-61 was rolled out and put on display on the ramp with the finished tail booms attached. Show-goers were able to get an all-around look at this incredible, extremely rare machine and all the progress that has been made on her restoration since the previous annual event.
The P-61 project is worked on daily by a full-time professional restoration staff, and as can be seen from the pictures, much of the structure is now together. However, as of June, the left and right wings, both rudders, ailerons and the single elevator remain to be rebuilt. Gear doors are also required. So far only one new engine has been acquired, and full rebuilds of both will almost certainly be needed.
Additionally there is the challenging and extensive arena of systems (wiring, plumbing, cables and actuation) to be addressed as well. With the amount of work remaining to be accomplished and the variables involved, no completion date has yet been set. But we do know that the civilian registration N550NF has been reserved, and the P-61 is to return, depicted in her original 550th Night Fighter Squadron markings, overall glossy black. When this major rebuild is completed, it will put back into the skies an almost forgotten, but technically significant type, the world’s first dedicated-from-design night fighter.
Mid-Atlantic Air Museum
Located at Reading Regional Airport - Spaatz Field in Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA, the Mid Atlantic Air Museum’s aircraft collection is a diverse one, including aircraft built from 1928 to 1982. Although it has a reputation primarily as a warbird museum, the collection contains 22 military aircraft, and 43 more civilian aircraft.
But the Museum’s focus really starts with local people. Those include world famous manufacturers such as William Piper, Sherman Fairchild, Giuseppe Bellanca, and Glenn Martin; pioneers like Eddie Rickenbacker,and Harold Pitcairn and leaders such as Carl Spaatz and Billy Mitchell.
The Museum’s collection emphasizes the Mid-Atlantic region’s unique contribution to flight, but is broad enough to chronicle a general history of aviation. For more information, take a virtual tour of the museum’s collection at www.maam.org.
The museum’s collections are accounted and cared for according to established museum practices, and historically accurate aircraft restoration and limited demonstration flying are undertaken, while the Museum’s aircraft are regularly seen on the airshow circuit, and at their own show. The museum’s ‘World War II Weekend’ annual event has become the premier activity of its kind.
With thanks to the MAAM and the museum’s webmaster and photographer Bill Rambow.