A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time post-World War II) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used in World War I and included types that were specifically modified to operate at night.
During World War II, night fighters were either purpose-built or "day" fighters modified to be effective night fighting combat aircraft, often employing radar or other systems for providing some sort of detection capability in low visibility. As the size of these systems fell in relation to the size of the average fighter, the need for a separate aircraft to fill this role generally disappeared. In the immediate post-World War II era, night fighters were redesignated as "all-weather" combat aircraft. Modern multirole fighters are capable of filling the night fighter role with no modifications.
Read more about Night Fighter: World War I
Famous quotes containing the words night and/or fighter:
“A man was to live in that egg-shell day and night, a mile from the shore.... Think of making your bed thus in the crest of a breaker! To have the waves, like a pack of hungry wolves, eying you always, night and day, and from time to time making a spring at you, almost sure to have you at last.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A pleasant smell of frying sausages
Attacks the sense, along with an old, mostly invisible
Photograph of what seems to be girls lounging around
An old fighter bomber, circa 1942 vintage.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)