The Buffalo's Brother by Buffalo1
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Description
No, not my brother - my avatar's brother. You are looking at a Brewster SB2A-4 "Buccaneer" divebomber on display at the U.S. Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. This plane was lovingly rebuilt out of the rotting hulks of several Buccaneers found on an airfield in Tennessee. A number of former Brewster employees volunteered their unique skills on the project.
This plane was a "promising" (according to the U.S. Navy) late 1930s design. The problem with most American late 1930s aircraft was that they were underpowerered. The Buccaneer suffered from this problem and performance was not considered good enough to place this plane in combat. The 700 plus Bucs served as advanced trainers, target tugs and station hacks here in the United States.
A good way to look at this divebomber is that it is the step between the Douglas SBD "Dauntless" and the Curtiss SB2C "Helldiver." Both of these planes are posted in my gallery, too
In the background a Grumman F8F "Bearcat," and a twin-engined F7F "Tigercat" can be seen. An F6F "Hellcat" is hanging from the ceiling.
Comments (18)
RodolfoCiminelli
Fantastic photo and impressive airplanes.....!!!!
erlandpil
Again a great capture picture erland
RobyHermida
Very beautiful picture .................
Fidelity2
Very well done. 5+.
Artlan59
Awesome shot. Nice composition.
weesel
Great shot. Love the old metal.
ontar1
Great shot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
chuter
Nice shot - Oddly, even the Corsairs built by Brewster weren't considered combat worthy. Maybe workmanship was a factor in the Buc's situation as well? The labor issues during the war weren't a factor in the Buc's case so maybe not.
Denys234
Excellent capture!!
artroland
I love it when I come to a new listing in your gallery and learn so much about the history of not only our country at war, but our engineering and design. Very cool of you to bring this to people!
Buffalo1
@chuter: You are right, but Brewster had a myriad of labor and management problems throughout the war. The initial Brewster factory had a poor lay out and saw one of the few cases of reported war sabotage by a disgruntled employee. Brewster's lack of experience in aircraft production did give birth to a groundbreaking design - the Buffalo, but also caused problems with landing gear not sturdy enough for the punishment of a carrier landing - trouble suffered by both the Buffalo and Buccaneer. Senator Harry Truman's committee raked Brewster over the coals and it was one of the first companies to lose its war contract in 1944 - the Corsairs you mentioned. To be honest, many of Brewster's competitors had the same sort of design problems and industrial mishaps. A look at the teething pains of the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and Howard Hughes' amazing airplanes show many of the same difficulties. The military continued to back these companies, but not Brewster. It's interesting to note that Curtiss didn't last long in aircraft production after the war ended.
Vik9740
lol.. and here i was expecting to see Jack!
Hawk23
Great shot! They have done some impressive work on the reconstruction.
jocko500
lot of history here. cool pov
busi2ness
If I recall correctly, here is a snippet FYI: During the 70's I recall seeing one being combat ready in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) but I think somebody suggested that they had trouble finding spare parts to keep it operational. Spare parts had been sourced from the scrap being available in South Africa. Next to the Vampire it looked a bit sluggish, I recall but a trustworthy piece of machinery nevertheless.
Buffalo1
Wow, Piet. I knew the British operated some Brewsters as the "Bermuda" but to find out that one was still chugging along in African combat in the 70s is amazing! It's research time!
debbielove
Lovely. Lovely. Keep 'em coming.... Well done, mate.
junge1
A nice combination of 'cats' Rog! Weren't the 'Brewsters sent up against the Japanese in the Philippines at the beginning of the war? And were no match?
Buffalo1
Sig, you are thinking about the Buffalo squadrons operated by the British Empire forces in Malaya and Dutch East indies AF. The US only used Buffaloes in combat at Midway in June of 1942 when a mixed Buff and Wildcat Marine squadron was shot to pieces by Zeroes. The first two US Navy models of the Buffalo (F2A-1 and -2) were typical late 1930s fighters - underpowered, but highly maneuverable and very good climbers. The wingload on these early models was just a tad heavier than the that of the Japanese Zero! The Finns, with well trained pilots, flew the F2A-1 (as the B-239) with amazing effect against the Soviets. The B-339 models ordered by the British and Dutch for service in Asia and the US Navy model F2A-3 were weighed down with another 900 lbs of modern mods including pilot armor, self-sealing fuel tanks, untrustworthy rebuilt engines, and armor glass canopies. The airframe couldn't handle it all and the once nimble plane that could "turn inside a phone booth" according to Pappy Boyington became a sluggish target for experienced Japanese pilots. Many Allied pilots in the Pacific in 1941-42 were newbies with minimal flight time. The British Buffaloes stationed in Burma did better when they borrowed the tactics of the AVG Flying Tiger squadron flying P-40s stationed with them. As von Richtofen said, "it's notthe crate. it's the man in the crate."