It was with much concern that Army Air Force, Government officials and the general populace greeted news of unknown intruders in the night sky over Wichita, Kansas in the summer of 1943.
By then, Boeing was getting its new B-29 bomber plant up in running on the outskirts of town. While the fight to get the revolutionary new bomber in service is legendary as the
Battle of Wichita, less well known is this brief action which preceeded it.
The Army Air Force wasn't about to take reports of possible enemy night raiders laying down, even if it was past bedtime. Realizing a fighter was needed which could "see in the dark" and having few aircraft to spare and even fewer that could carry radar, a service-test squadron of brand-spanking new bubble-top P-40 RNFs (Radar Night Fighters) were sent to protect the B-29 plant.
The prototype pursuits were given a special all-black scheme and fitted with a license-built version of the British airborne VBAQ-RDFX radar, which it was rumored could spot an enemy at 50 miles in darkness or bad weather. All war-time specifics on the VBAQ-RDFX radar had to be rumored as any actual facts were classified Tip-Top Secret and have never been publicly released.
The best fliers in the 94th Pursuit Squadron were chosen to defend the Boeing plant on the overnight shift. These brave men were very motivated and morale was high. So much so that they painted their unit's famous indian head insignia on the large noses of their P-40RNFs.
They would need all the morale and courage they could muster in the face of an unknown enemy force of indeterminate size in those dark, Kansas skies.
Curtiss P-40RNFs soon became a common sight over Wichita after sundown, at least to those who ate all their carrots and could see in the dark.
The wing antennae of the VBAQ-RDFX radar, while having no offensive capability, seemed menacing indeed and it was remarked that they made the Curtiss bubble-top fighters resemble those ants with prickly appendages that fight.
The driven detachment from the 94th would almost fly the wings off their P-40RNFs, undertaking countless sorties as Boeing got ready to bring their new bomber plant on line. No effort would be spared keeping the birthplace of the war-winning Superfortress safe.
Oddly enough, by the time a nip of autumn was in the air, sightings of unknown night aerial intruders dropped to nil and no further reports were received as the leaves started to turn color.
The reports were closed with "Nature & Number Undetermined" and this too was classified Tip-Top Secret and no details would be released due to numerous Freedom From Information requests. We may never know who was responsible for the scare, but some suggestions have been proposed.
As the bubble-top Curtiss P-40RNF offered no increase in performance over other fighters currently in service, their VBAQ-RDFX radar sets were salvaged for re-use while the rest of the air frames were consigned to the scrap heap. No P-40RNFs survived into 1945.
Still, for a brief moment, the P-40RNF defended Wichita from enemy attack and assured B-29s would start rolling off the line to win the war. One need only know that no enemy bombs ever fell on Kansas to realize the P-40RNF while utterly forgotten, was actually a stunning success.
Brian da Basher
