Question: What short lived aircraft, produced for the United States Air Force, is based on a fighter plane armed with four 20 mm cannons?
Context: The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (which became Hawker Beechcraft and later Beechcraft Defense Company, and was bought by Textron Aviation in 2014).  A trainer aircraft based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 has replaced the Air Force's Cessna T-37B Tweet and the Navy's T-34C Turbo Mentor.  The T-6A is used by the United States Air Force for basic pilot training and Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training and by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps for primary Naval Aviator training as well as primary and intermediate Naval Flight Officer (NFO) training.  The T-6A is also used as a basic trainer by the Royal Canadian Air Force (CT-156 Harvard II), the Greek Air Force, the Israeli Air Force ("Efroni"), and the Iraqi Air Force.  The T-6B is the primary trainer for U.S. student naval aviators.  The T-6C is used for training by the Mexican Air Force, Royal Air Force, Royal Moroccan Air Force, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The Grumman F9F Panther was the manufacturer's first jet fighter and one of the United States Navy's first successful carrier-based jet fighters.  A single-engined, straight-winged day fighter, it was armed with four 20 mm cannon and could carry a wide assortment of air-to-ground munitions. The Northrop P-61 Black Widow, named for the American spider, was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed to use radar.  The P-61 had a crew of three: pilot, gunner, and radar operator.  It was armed with four 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano M2 forward-firing cannons mounted in the lower fuselage, and four .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns mounted in a remote-controlled dorsal gun turret. Hiram Mann (May 23, 1921 – May 17, 2014) was an American aviator, retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, and member of the Tuskegee Airmen's 332nd Fighter Group, an elite squadron of African-American airmen during World War II.  Mann flew forty-eight missions over Europe as a member of the 332nd Fighter Group during the war.  Mann was a member of the "Red Tails," as the Tuskegee Airmen were called at the time, so-called because the tails of the P-51D Mustangs flown by the African-American pilots in combat missions were painted crimson red.  (The term "Tuskegee Airmen" did not come into use until the creation of a veteran's organization in 1972).  Mann nicknamed his own fighter plane "The Iron Lady" after his wife. The Ford-Philco GAU-7/A was an abortive program initiated by United States Air Force in the late 1960s to develop a new cannon to replace the M61 Vulcan on the then-upcoming F-15 Eagle.  The GAU-7/A was a 25 mm Gatling gun using telescoped ammunition with a combustible case.  It was intended to have greater range and hitting power than the 20 mm Vulcan, while the caseless ammunition would have alleviated the problems of either storing or ejecting spent cartridges, both of which present considerable problems for jet aircraft.  Despite great expenditure, the project and its ammunition proved to be a failure, and it was canceled in 1974.  The F-15 therefore retained the M61A1 cannon, as have most U.S. fighter aircraft since 1956. The 493d Fighter Squadron (493 FS), nicknamed "The Grim Reapers", is part of the United States Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing located at RAF Lakenheath, England.  The 493d Fighter Squadron is currently the only USAF squadron flying the F-15C Eagle within the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Major Command and has been flying the F-15C since 1994.  These 493d F-15C fighter aircraft are affixed with modern weaponry systems specifically designed to locate and target enemy aircraft and include the AIM-9 and AIM-120 air-to-air missiles.  The 493d provides Air-to-Air offensive and defensive support missions for United States and NATO operations.  The squadron has earned multiple commendations and awards, including the Air Force Association's Hughes Trophy in 1997 and 1999 and the 2014 Raytheon Trophy, being recognized as the top fighter squadron in the United States Air Force. The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often known non-officially as the Me 110, was a twin-engine heavy fighter ("Zerstörer"—German for "Destroyer") and fighter-bomber ("Jagdbomber" or "Jabo") developed in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and used by the Luftwaffe and others during World War II.  Hermann Göring was a proponent of the Bf 110.  It was armed with two MG FF 20 mm cannons, four 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine guns, and one 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine gun or twin-barrel MG 81Z for defence.  Development work on an improved type to replace the Bf 110, the Messerschmitt Me 210 began before the war started, but its teething troubles from its aerodynamics resulted in the Bf 110 soldiering on until the end of the war in various roles, alongside its replacements, the Me 210 and the significantly improved Me 410 "Hornisse". The Lavochkin La-7 (Russian: Лавочкин Ла-7 ) was a piston-engined Soviet fighter developed during World War II by the Lavochkin Design Bureau (OKB).  It was a development and refinement of the Lavochkin La-5, and the last in a family of aircraft that had begun with the LaGG-1 in 1938.  Its first flight was in early 1944 and it entered service with the Soviet Air Forces later in the year.  A small batch of La-7s was given to the Czechoslovak Air Force the following year, but it was otherwise not exported.  Armed with two or three 20 mm cannon, it had a top speed of 661 km/h .  The La-7 was felt by its pilots to be at least the equal of any German piston-engined fighter.  It was phased out in 1947 by the Soviet Air Force, but served until 1950 with the Czechoslovak Air Force. The Northrop F-15 Reporter (later RF-61) was an American unarmed photographic reconnaissance aircraft.  Based on the Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter, it was the last piston-powered photo-reconnaissance aircraft designed and produced for the United States Air Force.  Though produced in limited quantities, and with a relatively short service life, the F-15's aerial photographs of the Korean Peninsula would prove vital in 1950, when North Korea invaded the south. The incident started as a routine training flight.  Colonel Nikolai Skuridin, the pilot, departed from the Soviet Bagicz Airbase near Kołobrzeg, Poland.  During takeoff, the afterburner failed and the engine began losing power.  At an altitude of 150 meters and descending, the pilot assumed he had a complete engine failure and ejected without incident.  The engine had not failed completely, and the aircraft remained airborne, flying on autopilot in a westerly direction.  The unmanned aircraft left Polish airspace, crossing into the airspace of East Germany and then West Germany, where it was intercepted by a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15s of the 32d Tactical Fighter Squadron, of the United States Air Forces Europe, stationed at Soesterberg Air Base in the Netherlands.  As the MiG-23 crossed into Dutch airspace the F-15 pilots reported the plane having no pilot, radioing ""There is definitely no pilot in the plane"" and continuing the intercept into Belgian airspace.  The escorting F-15s were instructed to down the plane over the North Sea.  As the MiG ran out of fuel, it started a slow turn to the south.  The French Air Force put armed Mirage fighters on readiness in case the MiG approached French territory.  After flying over 900 km the MiG crashed into a house, killing a Belgian teenager.
Answer: Northrop F-15 Reporter