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Posted by: CharlieJ (cjoseph@eagle1.eaglent.com) on 1/18/1998@01:36hrs:
In Reply to: Re: Halloran Hospital posted by: DAN BLAINE on 1/17/1998@10:28hrs:
Dadgent beat me to it, but he's absolutely right. That is if you want
to go by those dumb (less informative) Air Force (and AAF) designations
that the Navy was forced into switching to in 1962. Being a Navy Airdale
and at least starting before '62 the Black Widow will always be an F2T to me. It
was used by the Navy and Marine Corps until replaced by Jets in the late
50's. In '48 the Air Force redesignated it an F-61 when they did away
with the P for Pursuit prefix. There was also a version called a 'Reporter'
and designated F-15. Obviously it was an intel gathering aircraft. There
weren't too many, so they reused the F-15 designation with the current
'Eagle'. Speaking of reusing, Northrop's entry for the upcoming multi-service
fighter (won by a Lockheed and Boeing consortium's F-22) was the F-23 nicknamed
the 'Black Widow'. But they lost the bidding.
The F2T/P-61 was a great airplane, but like so many good recip engine
aircraft that came out near the end or just after WWII, they were obsoleted
quickly by jets.
It was one of the better models I made as a kid. Actually didn't look bad.
Charlie