布鲁斯特
A carriage maker’s float shop built the US Navy’s first monoplane fighter, a flop over Midway but a legend in Finland, before fraud and chaos led the Navy to seize the company.
Brewster: the company and the aircraft that made its name
The pearl of the northern skies
To the US Marines at Midway in June 1942, the Brewster F2A-3 was a flying coffin. To the Finns it was the pearl of the northern skies. In the Continuation War, Finland’s 44 Model 239s, de-navalised export F2A-1s, claimed 32 Soviet aircraft for every one lost in the first phase and produced 36 aces. Hans Wind scored 39 victories in the type, and one airframe, BW-364, carried its pilots to 42 and a half kills, possibly the highest-scoring fighter airframe in history. The Finns never called it the Buffalo; it was simply the Brewster.
Carriages, floats and fighters
Brewster & Co. was a carriage builder that, after the First World War, made hulls for Loening amphibians and floats for Vought. In 1932 the engineer James Work bought the aviation division for 30,000 dollars and formed the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation. Chief engineer Dayton Brown designed the SBA scout bomber and then the F2A, which beat an early Grumman design to become the Navy’s first monoplane fighter. It first flew on 2 December 1937, but the cramped factory in the Brewster Building in Queens delivered only 11 F2A-1s to the Navy. Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland bought export versions.
Seized by the Navy
Growth exposed everything. Brewster’s salesmen, the Miranda brothers, had served prison time for illicit arms sales to Bolivia and over-promised to customers; the swollen workforce was hit by strikes and suspected sabotage. Work was sued for 10 million dollars, and on 18 April 1942 the Navy seized the company outright. The SB2A Buccaneer scout bomber that followed is counted among the worst aircraft of the war. When the Navy cancelled Brewster’s Corsair contract on 1 July 1944 the end came quickly, and shareholders dissolved the company on 5 April 1946.
Brewster in numbers
公司
- 简而言之
- Founded 1932
- Aviation division of carriage builder Brewster & Co., bought by James Work for 30,000 dollars
- Plants at Long Island City, Newark and Johnsville, Pennsylvania
- Ranked 84th among US corporations by WWII production contracts
生产
- 最出名的是
- F2A 布法罗
- F2A: US Navy’s first monoplane fighter
- SB2A Buccaneer scout bomber, 1942–1944
- F3A-1 Corsair built under licence
今天
- 现在
- Dissolved 1946
- Seized by the US Navy in April 1942
- Dissolved by its shareholders on 5 April 1946
这些数字
- Price paid for the aviation division
- 30,000 US dollars1932
- Rank among US war-production contractors
- 84th
- Finnish kill ratio claimed with the Model 239
- 32 to 1 (first phase of the Continuation War)
- Dutch Buffalo purchase
- 92
Every notable Brewster aircraft
Photos: Sot.virk. V.Hollming / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
| 飞机 | 角色 | 首航 | 建造 | 地位 | 笔记 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brewster SBA | Two-seat scout bomber | 1936 | 已退休 | Mostly built by the Naval Aircraft Factory as the SBN-1 | |
| Brewster F2A Buffalo | 舰载战斗机 | 1937 | 已退休 | Navy’s first monoplane fighter; Finnish Model 239, British Buffalo Mk I, Dutch 339 | |
| Brewster SB2A Buccaneer (Bermuda) | Scout bomber | 1941 | 已退休 | Never saw combat; used as target tug and trainer | |
| Brewster F3A-1 Corsair | Carrier fighter (licence-built Vought F4U) | 已退休 | Contract cancelled 1 July 1944 |
Brewster aircraft in the world’s air forces
3 air forces in the Order of Battle fly or flew Brewster types. 其中 0 辆仍在服役。.
| 空军 | 在服役 | 以前飞过 |
|---|---|---|
| 芬兰空军 | 布鲁斯特239型（F2A-1出口型） | |
| 澳大利亚皇家空军 | 布鲁斯特布法罗 | |
| 美国海军陆战队航空兵 | 布鲁斯特F2A-3水牛 |
Where Brewster built, who led it, what it achieved
工厂
- Brewster Building · Long Island City, New York — Inefficient factory blamed for slow F2A output
- Newark plant · Newark, New Jersey
- Johnsville plant · Warminster Township, Pennsylvania — Opened 1941; later NAS Johnsville
人们
- James (Jimmy) Work · founder and president — Eased out by the Navy, briefly regained control in 1942
- Dayton T. Brown · chief engineer — Designed the SBA and F2A
- George Conrad Westervelt · Navy-appointed head — Former head of the Naval Aircraft Factory, put in charge in April 1942
纪录和第一
- F2A Buffalo: first monoplane fighter of the US Navy
- Finnish Brewster BW-364: 42.5 kills by all its pilots, possibly the highest-scoring fighter airframe ever
Brewster, year by year
James Work buys the Brewster aviation division
SBA scout bomber first flight
XF2A-1 first flight
VF-3 receives the first Navy F2As
Finland signs for 44 Model 239s
US Navy seizes Brewster
Marine F2A-3s fight at Midway
Last Buffalo victory, over the Karelian Isthmus
Navy cancels the Corsair contract
公司解散
Everything people ask about Brewster
Why was the Brewster Buffalo successful in Finland but not in the Pacific?
Why did the US Navy seize Brewster?
When did Brewster close?
What was the Brewster SB2A Buccaneer?
所有事实均已核实
- Brewster Aeronautical Corporation – Wikipedia
- Brewster F2A Buffalo – Wikipedia
- Brewster SB2A Buccaneer – Wikipedia
已验证 2026-10-03。.