On January 10, 1945, a P-61 Black Widow night fighter crashed into the slopes of Mount Cyclops on the island of New Guinea. Forty years later, a team from the Mid Atlantic Air Museum set out to recover the wreckage and restore the rare aircraft to its original flying condition.
Here, The Mid Atlantic Air Museum’s own Russ Strine shows talks about their decades old Northrop P-61B Black Widow restoration. It truly is an amazing labor of love.
Video courtest of Matt Jolley www.warbirdradio.com
That is truly great that you are restoring that amazing warbird back to its original condition.
The P61 was the 1st airplane I had ever seen. It was back in the early 1950s and mounted on a concrete pedestal somewhere in Western Ohio. I was in grade school and lived in Indiana. I believe that plane is the one in the Air Force Museum. I still have a mental picture of that plane buzzing around in my head because it started me on a career of learning to fly, flying charter, flying for United Airlines and still flying a hangar full of my planes after 58 years. I am so thrilled to see this project being restored. It is amazing to me how a few seconds of viewing an airplane mounted on a concrete pedestal as my dad drove down the highway can trigger a lifelong career and love affair.