The Brewster F2A Buffalo is an American fighter aircraft which saw service early in World War II. Designed and built by the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, it was one of the first U.S. monoplanes with an arrestor hook and other modifications for aircraft carriers. The Buffalo won a competition against the Grumman F4F Wildcat in 1939 to become the U.S. Navy's first monoplane fighter aircraft. Although superior to the Grumman F3F biplane it replaced, and the early F4Fs,Wheeler 1992, p. 58. the Buffalo was largely obsolete when the United States entered the war, being unstable and overweight, especially when compared to the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
Several nations, including Finland, Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands, ordered the Buffalo. The Finns were the most successful with their Buffalos, flying them in combat against early Soviet fighters with excellent results.Ethell 1995, p. 212. During the Continuation War of 1941–1944, the Brewster Model 239s (export versions of the F2A-1) operated by the Finnish Air Force proved capable of engaging and destroying most types of Soviet fighter aircraft operating against Finland at that time, and claimed in the first phase of that conflict 32 Soviet aircraft shot down for every Model 239 lost,Neulen 2000, p. 217. producing 36 Buffalo "aces".Stenman and Thomas 2010, p. 85.
In December 1941, Buffalos operated by both British Commonwealth (339E) and Dutch (339C/D) air forces in South East Asia suffered severe losses in combat against the Japanese Navy's A6M Zero and the Japanese Army's Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar". The British attempted to lighten their Buffalos by removing ammunition and fuel and installing lighter guns to improve performance, but it made little difference.Ethell 1995, p. 213. After the first few engagements, the Dutch halved the fuel and ammunition load in the wings, which allowed their Buffalos (and their Hawker Hurricanes) to stay with the Ki-43 in turns.Boer 2006, p. 83.
The Buffalo was built in three variants for the U.S. Navy: the F2A-1, F2A-2 and F2A-3. (In foreign service, usually with lower horsepower engines, these types were designated Model 239, 339, and 339-23 respectively.) The F2A-3 variant saw action with United States Marine Corps (USMC) squadrons at the Battle of Midway. Shown by the experience of Midway to be no match for the Zero, the F2A-3 was derided by USMC pilots as a "flying coffin".Theodore, Taylor. The Battle Off Midway Island. New York: Avon, 1982. . Indeed, the F2A-3s performance was substantially inferior to the F2A-2 variant used by the Navy before the outbreak of the war despite detail improvements.
Name The US Navy called the aircraft the Brewster F2A, or simply the F2A or Brewster (pursuit) fighter. The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation's sales force, the Brewster Export Corporation, legally a separate company, appears to have used a three-number designation for the aircraft it offered for export abroad. The second two numbers denoted the year the product was offered for sale and the first number the ordinal number of the product offered that year. E.g. Brewster Model 139 = the first aircraft design offered abroad by the Export Corporation in the year 1939. Contrary to popular belief, the 139 appears to not have been the XF2A-1, but a scout fighter design based on the 138, in turn the export version of the XSBA-1 scout bomber. Neither design ever left the drawing board. No documents from the 1930s and 1940s appear to make any use of the B-prefix applied in literature to the export models, rather it appears to be an entirely post-war anachronism. The designation 439 referring to the 339-23 is likewise a post-war fiction.
The British purchased the Model 339E based on the F2A-2 in 1940 and some time in 1940-41 named it the Buffalo Mk. I. There is some evidence that the name Buffalo in reference to the F2A spread to limited American use in the Pacific, but otherwise the name spread to mean all F2A type fighters only in the decades following World War II. The Finns and the Dutch exclusively called their 239s and 339Cs, Ds and -23s respectively Brewsters, never Buffalos.
Design and development
United States Navy In 1935, the U.S. Navy issued a requirement for a carrier-based fighter intended to replace the Grumman F3F. The Brewster XF2A-1 monoplane, designed by a team led by Dayton T. Brown, was one of two aircraft designs that were initially considered. The XF4F-1 had a double-row radial engine but was a biplane like the F3F. The U.S. Navy competition was re-opened to allow another competitor, the NF-1, a navalized Seversky P-35, but it was eliminated because the prototype could not exceed .Shores 1971, p. 133. The XF2A-1 first flew on 2 December 1937 and early test results showed it was far in advance of the Grumman biplane entry. While the XF4F-1 did not enter production, it later re-emerged as a monoplane, the Wildcat.
The Buffalo was manufactured at the Brewster Building in Long Island City, New York. The new Brewster fighter had a modern look with a stubby fuselage, mid-set monoplane wings and a host of advanced features. It was all-metal, with flush-riveted, stressed aluminum construction, although control surfaces were still fabric-covered. The XF2A-1 also featured split flaps, a hydraulically operated retractable main undercarriage (and partially retractable tailwheel), and a streamlined framed canopy. As was common at this time, the aircraft lacked self-sealing fuel tanks and pilot armor. Fuel capacity was only , stored in the fuselage. Powered by a single-row Wright R-1820-22 Cyclone radial engine, it had a good initial climb rate of and a top speed of . The aircraft was then tested in 1938 in the Langley Research Center full-scale wind tunnel, where it was determined that certain factors were contributing to parasitic drag. Based on the tests, improvements were made to the cowling streamlining and carburetor and oil cooler intakes, and the Buffalo's speed rose to at without any increase in power.Baugher, Joe. "Brewster XF2A-1." U.S. Navy Fighter Aircraft: Brewster F2A, 25 December 1999. Retrieved: 8 March 2009.Maas 1987, p. 5.Enzo Angelucci, The American Fighter Other manufacturers took notice of this 10 percent increase in speed and efficiency, and wind tunnel tests became standard procedure in the US. With only a single-stage supercharger, high-altitude performance fell off rapidly. Fuselage armament was one fixed M2 Browning machine gun with 200 rounds and one fixed AN Browning machine gun with 600 rounds, both in the nose. The Navy awarded Brewster Aeronautical Corporation a production contract for 54 aircraft, the F2A-1s.
Service testing of the XF2A-1 prototype began in January 1938 and in June, production started on the F2A-1. They were powered by Wright R-1820-34 engines and had larger fins. The added weight of two additional Browning wing guns and other equipment specified by the Navy for combat operations reduced the initial rate of climb to . Plagued by production difficulties, Brewster delivered only 11 F2A-1 aircraft to the Navy; the remainder of the order was later diverted to the Finnish Air Force in modified form under the export designation Model 239.
A later variant, the F2A-2, of which 43 were ordered by the U.S. Navy, included a more powerful R-1820-40 engine, a better propeller, and integral flotation gear, while still lacking pilot armor and self-sealing tanks. The increase in engine power was welcomed, but to some extent offset by the increased loaded weight () of the aircraft; while top speed was increased to a respectable at , initial climb rates dropped to . Both the F2A-1 and the F2A-2 variants of the Brewster were liked by early Navy and Marine pilots, including Pappy Boyington, who praised the good turning and maneuvering abilities of the aircraft:West, Rick. "Pappy Boyington and the Buffalo: Interview of Pappy Boyington, October 1977". www.warbirdforum.com. Retrieved: 8 March 2009. "the early models, before they weighed it all down with armor plate, radios, and other [equipment] ... were pretty sweet little ships. Not real fast, but the [early F2As] ... could turn and roll in a phone booth". This might reasonably have been expected with the low wing loading in earlier variants, which was comparable with the Mitsubishi A6M Zero's lb/sq ft.
The F2A-3 was the last version of the Buffalo to enter service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. A total of 108 examples were ordered in January 1941. By this time, the Navy had become disenchanted with the Buffalo, and had become especially annoyed at Brewster Aeronautical Corporation's frequent production delays and its frequent management difficulties. This order was seen more as a way of keeping Brewster's production lines running; they would eventually build Corsair fighters for the Navy as well as Buccaneer/Bermuda dive bombers.
The F2A-3s were conceived as long range reconnaissance fighters with new wet wings with self-sealing features and larger fuselage tanks which provided increased fuel capacity and protection, but this also increased the aircraft weight by more than .Lundstrom 2005, p. 12. The wing and enlarged fuselage tank carried an additional of fuel; at , the fuel alone weighed nearly . The addition of armor plating for the pilot and increased ammunition capacity further increased the aircraft's weight, resulting in a reduced top speed and rate of climb, while substantially degrading the Brewster's turning and maneuvering capability. The Navy found that the added weight of the F2A-3 also aggravated the problem of landing gear failure during carrier landings. However, the −40 two-speedGraham White, Allied Aircraft Piston Engines of WWII supercharged Cyclone engine in the F2A-3 was an excellent "cruising" engine, and as such the F2A-3 had some value and saw initial service on the carriers Saratoga and Lexington.
Even in late 1940 it was apparent that the Buffalo was rapidly becoming obsolete. It badly needed a more powerful engine and an enlarged wing (to offset the increased weight), but the limits of the airframe had been reached, making installation of a larger engine impossible. Soon after deliveries of the F2A-3 began, the Navy decided to eliminate the type altogether. However, a project was begun to replace the wing-mounted .50 M2 machine guns with two M2 20mm cannons. At least eight sets of wings were completed, and at least one F2A-3 was fitted with them. By then considered a second line aircraft, some were transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps, which deployed two F2A-3 squadrons to the Pacific, one at Palmyra Atoll, and another at Midway Island. Those which still remained on board aircraft carriers narrowly missed a combat opportunity when a relief mission was dispatched to Wake Island, but the relief force was withdrawn before completing the mission. Shortly thereafter, F2A-3s still in naval service were transferred to training squadrons for use as advanced trainers.
Operational history