Though only 706 Northrop P-61 Black Widows were produced, and it only saw service in the final year of the Second World War, the aircraft was notable for being operated effectively as a night fighter by the United States Army Air Force squadrons in the European and Pacific, China-Burma-India and Mediterranean Theaters of operation.
The NAA F-86, America’s first swept-wing jet, made her maiden flight – in the guise of the XP-86 prototype – on October 1, 1947, and the production model of the plane officially entered into U.S. Air Force operational service in 1949.