Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
I've just read 'Beaufighters in the Night' which is an superb book about a US nightfighter squadron which operated Beaufighters before converting to the P-61 Blackwidow...............................
So, my queston is, which of the pre-Blackwidow US airframes (i.e. early war) could have been developed as a decent nightfighter? And if it didn't work out, then why not?
I think the A-20 could have been made into a decent night fighter. However neither the U.S. Army Air Corps nor the USN seemed to like this excellent light bomber. Like the P-39 fighter it was mostly produced to give away as Lend-Lease.
Night Fighters
The Navy saw the need for night fighters and started the Project Affirm program in early 1942, originally with Corsairs equipped with primitive AI (Air Interception) radar sets built by MIT engineers. In 1943, the Hellcat emerged as the preferred night fighter because of its easier landing characteristics and greater stability as a gun platform. The F6F-3E, converted in the field at MCAS Quonset Point, was the first Hellcat night fighter, using the AI radar, red cockpit lighting (to preserve the pilot's night vision), and without an easily scratched Plexiglass windscreen fairing. Eighteen F6F-3E's were built. (On November 26, 1943, Butch O'Hare, flying an unmodified F6F-3 on a night mission with a TBF Avenger, disappeared over the Gilberts. One of the best books I have read about the Pacific War, Crossing the Line, by Alvin Kernan - who was the gunner on the Avenger that night - deals with this event in detail.)
Next came the F6F-3N, 205 of these built by the Grumman factory. The F6F-3N employed an improved radar, the APS-6. Installed in a bulbous pod on the starboard wing, the APS-6 was simple to operate (only six knobs), had a range of five miles, and weighed 250 pounds. It featured a double-dot system that displayed a shadow blip to the right of the true blip; this secondary blip showed the target's altitude relative to the F6F. The -3E's and -3N's deployed to the carriers in the Pacific in early 1944, but were difficult to integrate into carrier operations, as they essentially would have required round-the-clock duty by launch and recovery crews. Nonetheless, three Hellcat-equipped night squadrons (VF(N)-76, VF(N)-77, and VF(N)-78) served in the Pacific in 1944
Mounting the 1700 HP version of the R-2600 (one from B-25, or Avenger), while stripping some armor would've done good for ole A-20.
I'll venture to agree with people that say night fighting was not one of USAAC top priorities.
Fifty-nine P-70s, originally ordered as A-20s were completed with R-2600-11 engines as night fighters. These engines produced 1600hp.
Yep, that's why I've said the 1700 HP ones would've came in nicely
A20
Loaded Weight. 27,200 lbs
2 x 1,700 hp engines.
Ju-88G1
Loaded Weight. 28,888 lbs
2 x 1,677hp engines.
A-20 power to weight ratio was as good as the Ju-88G1. I have a difficult time believing performance was inadequate during 1941 to 1943. During 1944 it would have been superceded by a night fighter variant of the more powerful A-26.
I'm not so sure the B-26 Marauder would have been a good Nightfighter platform, even though it had more powerful engines, it was a real handful to fly even in good weather.