From: Bob Nelson
Dated: September 15, 2012
Subject: A Trip to the Navy Pensacola Museum
Had never seen or heard anything on the P61 until I looked it up. Looks like a hybrid of a hybrid. Interesting bird...like an early skunkworks product.
Bob Nelson
Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum
September 2012
From: Skip Henley
Dated: September 15, 2012
Subject: A Trip to the Navy Pensacola Museum
Check out this link: Click here
From: Jack Holsomback
Dated: September 17, 2012
Subject: A Trip to the Navy Pensacola Museum
It was about 30 years ago, I was taxiing a little Cessna to the end of the runway at the Vicksburg, Mississippi airport. Patiently waiting for me to get the hell out of the way was a beautiful navy blue Corsair. I made the takeoff roll pulled up and to the left for the departure, when that huge bird zipped up pass me, hauled up on the stick, the corkscrewed almost straight up. What a thrill that was. Those old navy pilots loved to show off.
Jack H
From: Steve Sevits
Dated: September 17, 2012
Subject: A Trip to the Navy Pensacola Museum
The P-61, in spite of its large size was a new design built from the ground up as a night fighter pursuit plane (P).
Built by Northrup it was designed as the first plane specifically to house airborne radar.
Google for info and images. Arguably not one of the prettiest planes ever built but very effective. 12 min from takeoff to 10,000 ft. Ground takeoff roll 1500' lots of power.
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From: Skip Henley
Dated: September 15, 2012
Subject: A Trip to the Navy Pensacola Museum
Corsair ties with the P-51 Mustang in my opinion. (Of course the Mustang came way later.) Both were terrific airplanes, followed closely by the P-38 "Lightning" and often called "Whistling Death" by the Japanese in WW II.
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From: Steve Sevits
Dated: September 15, 2012
Subject: A Trip to the Navy Pensacola Museum
Never been to the museum at Pensacola, but have seen a Corsair up close. Also seen a P-51 and P-38 up close at the AF Museum in Dayton. Gee, they're big. My favorite is the P-61 Black Widow, a great big plane which has lots of power and is airborne in 1500'.
Years ago a guy tried to sell me a warbird, and everything sounded good, even the insurance was only $5k/year, sounded good until I found out the deductible was a staggering 25%!