P-70 NIghtfighter, Revell, 1/72

 

Night hunting was a very serious problem. Night bombers could bomb with no more opposition than anti-aircraft artillery, which initially fired blindly. In the 1920s, searchlights were developed with enormous lamps that illuminated the sky in beams coordinated with the artillery.

Since World War I, attempts had been made to develop a night fighter, but they didn't progress much. The technology simply couldn't provide solutions at that time, and flying a day fighter at night, searching for targets, was the only solution, and remained so for decades.

This is how the beginning of World War II was fought. Even in the Battle of Britain, Hurricanes were initially used with no special equipment other than exhaust shields to make the engine flames less visible.

The first attempt was to carry enormous spotlights into the air, which required a very heavy aircraft. For this, some DB-7s originally purchased by the French were used. They were equipped with an open, frontal searchlight called a Turbinlite. The idea sounded sensible, but the problem was that they had to search for the target blindly, and if they found it, the only thing they could do was illuminate it so that another aircraft could attack them. Although, on second thought, if instead of illuminating them with light, they sprayed them with machine gun fire, it would be more useful. Furthermore, they were so visible that the attacked aircraft simply had to evade them or fire at the light source.

A Turbinlite it's the platform for the radar version

Finally, the RAF managed to develop a radar light enough to be mounted on an aircraft and equip some DB-7s with it. This was an immediate success, solving the fundamental problem of locating the target without revealing the presence of the fighter, which could then approach and shoot it down.

The USAAF immediately adopted the idea and several sets of this equipment, re-equipping several A-20s with it and renaming them the P-70, the first truly effective American night fighter. This aircraft started the trend of putting radars on aircraft the size of a medium bomber and using them as night fighters. The P-70 began entering service in 1942 and participated from the beginning of the Solomon Islands campaign, but served all over the world: in the Mediterranean, Europe, India, China, and throughout the Pacific.

The P-70 Nightfighter was equipped with a radar in the nose, a set of machine guns under the belly where the bomb tank should have been, and a defensive machine gun on top of the fuselage; in all other respects it was identical to the A-20.

MODELISM

Only Revell Lodela has produced this model, although it is easy to convert any A-20; the model was imported by Lodela and was produced in the 80s in Mexico, the only differences are the nose cone, radar and weapons case, the decals were very simple, it has not been produced in many years.

GALLERY

Revell Lodela model, straight from the box, assembled many years ago, Lodela paint, which shines as if it were applied yesterday, model decals, corrected with paint when they started to peel,