New Models

Testifying before the Senate Military Affairs Committee, Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson casually disclosed that a new U.S. fighter plane, the P-63, would go into production this year. Mr. Patterson gave no details, the War Department said engineering information on the new ship would be withheld for two weeks. Many flyers had already guessed that the plane might turn out to be a radically improved version of one of the older American fighters.

Until the P-63 is formally introduced to the U.S. public, the Army's newest fighter remains the P-61 (Black Widow), twin-engined Northrop night fighter. On Jan. 14 the Black Widow had the peculiar distinction of first seeing the light of publication in a comic strip, NEA Service's Wash Tubbs. Artist Leslie Turner had seen the plane for months, flitting around his home at Orlando, Fla.

He drew it in because: 1) he thought it would be announced before his strip appeared; 2) no other plane he knew of exactly fitted the needs of his continuity. Biggest fighter plane yet, the Black Widow is heavily armed, turns up speeds in the 400-m.p.h. class with two Pratt & Whitney engines, has a rear gun position.

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