"Rejected Upon Completion, But Everyone Wanted the" Topic

…Last Piece – the American Navy Fighter Brewster F2A "Buffalo"

"After the mid-1930's, the US Navy wanted to develop a more modern carrier-based fighter to replace Grumman's aging biplanes. The Navy accepted two aircraft manufacturers, to compete the tender, the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation and the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation. Brewster won the competition and the Navy ordered initially 54 Brewster carrier-based fighters.

During the designing, making the blueprints and placing the orders, the both, the US Navy, neither the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation couldn't have a clue, in fact, their effort would lead, not to complete a new, major US carrier-fighter, but making the corner-stone, the main fighter of the Finnish Air Forces in the WWII.

I'm not entirely clear on the facts, why the US Navy was disappointed with the Brewster model, the fighter's flight capabilities, charasteristics were good compared to the existing aircraft and the Brewster was further developed based on wind tunnel tests, its top speed was improved, for instace. Only later, as the war continued, did it become clear that the company was mismanaged, it was plagued by e.g. a labor shortage due to overcapacity in production, which led to the procurement of incompetent labor and further even sabotage at the Brewster factories. Brewster Aeronautical Corporation is ranked 84th among the US corporations producing military equipments during the WWII. However, these problems were not known by the US Navy, in the late 1930's, or during the very early on the 1940's while it abandoned Brewster's designs…"

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Armand

As developped to the stated requirements it was fine.

Then the suggestions and modifications started to add weight and more weight until it was near useless.

It did brilliantly with the Finns, who never modified it much but left it in its' lighter mode.

Surprisingly the contemperary P36, Hawk and Mohawk family did quite well for themselves too and started out with no self sealing fuel tanks r pilot armour. They kept using them into what 1943 in Burma.

Technical matters aside, I have never liked the Buffalo because it doesn't look like a fighter. It looks like someone cut-out a piece of the fuselage and then bolted the two remaining halves back together. They could have named it the Brewster "Stubby."

Thanks

Armand