Brewster Buffalo - WW2's "Worst" Aircraft Wasn't All Bad | Aircraft History #7

the brewster buffalo is often called one of the worst if not the worst aircraft used in world war ii i personally feel like that's a bit harsh the buffalo certainly had its drawbacks but it was also the victim of poor timing company mismanagement and the obsession of air staff wanting to bolt as many extra things onto it as possible the buffalo's origins can be traced back to the mid-1930s the us navy wanted a modern carrier-based fighter to replace its aging fleet of biplanes their main aircraft at the time being the grumman f3f in november of 1935 the us navy officially issued a requirement for the new aircraft and three manufacturers submitted their proposals grumman submitted a new design to the navy designated xf4f1 and the navy quickly ordered a prototype to be built however grumman never went through on the construction of this aircraft like the f3f it was a biplane and grumman were quickly realizing that the age of the biplane was coming to an end having observed the sleek new monoplanes appearing in europe and japan they would take their aircraft back to the drawing board eventually producing the f4f wildcat but for the moment they were out of the picture saverski submitted their xfn1 to the navy however it was merely a slightly updated model of the p-35 converted for naval use and it was unable to attain the airspeeds specified by the naval requirement so that was the second aircraft manufacturer out of the picture this left the brewster aeronautical corporation a relatively new name in the aviation world having only entered the industry in 1932. despite this they submitted a design for a modern all-metal monoplane fighter designated the model b-139 it had split flaps that were hydraulically powered it had an enclosed cockpit and a fully retractable landing gear with a tail wheel and arrester hook for carrier landings a nine cylinder 950 horsepower right cyclone engine would power the aircraft driving a three-blade propeller and the proposed armament would consist of two nose-mounted guns 150 caliber browning m2 machine gun and one 30 caliber browning m1919 the design looks promising and the navy ordered a prototype and gave it the designation xf2a the prototype first took to the skies on the 2nd of december 1937. it was then put through service testing at the start of 1938. initially its speed failed to impress being unable to reach 300 miles an hour this was rectified by the use of a new innovation in the aviation industry the wind tunnel the langley research center had a full scale wind tunnel available and subsequent tests highlighted several changes that had to be made to get the best air flow out of the airframe these changes were made the most important affecting the cowling and the engine intakes and the top speed of the aircraft rose to 304 miles an hour further flight tests gathered praise for the f2a with pilots noting its good turning and handling characteristics by this point the navy had awarded brewster with a contract to produce a 54 aircraft and that's where some of the problems begin brewster had started out as a relatively small aircraft parts supplier that had also dabbled in aircraft production now that they were required to produce aircraft on mass it became very apparent very quickly that their production facilities were woefully inadequate for the task deliveries of the aircraft were slow so slow in fact that by the delivery completion date of the batch of 54 aircraft the navy only received 11 of them the remaining aircraft from the order would eventually be deemed surplus and delivered to the finnish air regiment who were busy dealing with the onslaught of the soviet union the first naval air unit to be equipped with the buffalo was a vr3 which was attached to the uss saratoga air group in december of 1939 the group received 10 of the 11 original aircraft delivered and the us navy now had its first carrier-borne monoplane fighters in service in 1939 the next variant of the aircraft was also becoming available the f2 a2 this version had some general quality of life upgrades and it boasted a new version of the cyclone engine the aircraft now had a top speed of 323 miles an hour at 16 and a half thousand feet however it had been noticed that the buffalo's engine performance somewhat fell off a cliff at high altitude due to only having a single stage supercharger this made the aircraft somewhat unappealing to european buyers their aircraft could fly higher and faster than the buffalo however they did see the potential use in the fighter in other theaters where air will face inferior aircraft compared to their european counterparts this would become of particular interest to britain who will need to distribute fighters throughout the commonwealth territory without wasting their precious spitfires and hurricanes which were desperately needed on the home front in consequence of this in 1940 orders started to reach brewster not only from the navy but from european buyers as well 170 for britain 40 for belgium and 24 the netherlands their factory was already working at full capacity to deliver an order of 43 f-2a2s for the navy and this added pressure completely revealed their production shortcomings this was not helped by the fact that brewster had hired alfred and ignacio miranda as the company salesman they both had a history of fraud had in fact been imprisoned for it and had overpromised brewster's production capabilities to their customers the horrific mismanagement of production soured of the navy's opinion on the company and their aircraft and the last version of the buffalo to be ordered was the f2a3 in many ways this third variant was a downgrade compared to the previous though it did possess some improvements it finally had an engine with a two-speed supercharger improving high altitude performance it had self-sealing fuel tanks and larger fuselage tanks it had armor protection for the pilot something the buffalo completely lacked before and it also had new and improved radio equipment the problem was that all of these new features added weight to the tune of an extra 500 pounds and this weight went a long way in ruining the buffalo's one's beloved turning and handling characteristics on top of this was the navy's alarming discovery that the aircraft's landing gear was not up to the task of absorbing the impact of flight deck landings even when the landings were incredibly slow and smooth there were often cases of damage to the gear struts these struts would be strengthened in an attempt to combat this but no further improvement was possible without completely redesigning the aircraft during this time as well grumman had returned with their improved f4f monoplane which was rapidly turning heads in the navy trials soon it became very apparent that once the current production run of buffaloes was complete no more orders would be placed in light of this buffalo is currently in service with the navy were gradually seized over to the marine corps the first buffaloes to arrive in great britain were originally bound for belgium but when the country fell the order was transferred to the british and the aircraft were originally assigned to the 805th and the 885th squadrons of the fleet air arm the aircraft's shortcomings quickly became apparent and they were shipped off to squadrons serving in the far east they would find bases in burma singapore and malaya just in time to be overwhelmed by the tsunami of the japanese invasion the buffaloes supply to britain were considerably inferior in performance compared to the f2a2 which had been the original aircraft specification ordered they were heavier slower and worst of all less aerodynamic in fact it was so bad that many aircraft were unable to perform vertical loops when the japanese came the buffalo held its own against the earlier aircraft like the ki 27 and the ki 43 but they were hopelessly outclassed by the zeroes in march 1942 the few remaining serviceable aircraft were being flown in burma squadrons of dutch buffaloes had been decimated in the defense of java sumatra malaya and borneo though they had not gone down quietly in fact when incompetent hands the buffalo scored many kills in the eastern theater the problem lay in the lack of pilot training and the fact that the aircraft was simply outclassed by many of its opponents it wasn't poorly designed but it was outclassed many pilots especially those in the commonwealth forces such as the royal australian air force took extreme measures to lighten the aircraft and bring back their good handling qualities many had the armor removed radio equipment reduced or chucked away fuel tanks were only half filled and many had their 50 caliber machine guns swapped out for 303s though they did have a habit of jamming by the end of their use and to their credit buffalo's in service with the commonwealth shot down over 80 japanese aircraft though a majority of them were bombers now it sounds like the buffalo wasn't doing so well in the pacific theater and you'd be correct the marine corps buffaloes was sent into the fray at the battle of midway one of the few occasions where u.s buffaloes would see combat and they took massive losses again to their credit in the opening parts of the action the buffaloes actually shot down a number of japanese bombers and dive bombers but when the escorting zeroes entered the fray things went south very quickly of the 20 buffaloes deployed at the battle 13 was shot down after this it became apparent that the buffalo's time was over especially with the emergence of the f4f that was being built in greater and more reliable numbers and the remaining aircraft were sent back to the mainland united states to be used as trainers i said at the beginning of the video that i thought it was harsh calling the buffalo the worst aircraft in world war ii so far you would think that there is more than enough evidence to support it but as i said earlier it's not so much as that it was a bad aircraft but rather a victim of circumstances in the pacific the buffalo was not only outclassed but it was in the hands of poorly trained pilots and it was delivered in a poor specification it may have been a disaster there but in one theater of the war the buffalo managed to show its hidden qualities and that was in finland the finnish government had signed a contract to purchase 44 aircraft in december of 1939. these were an export variant of the a1 they had a more powerful engine than the original aircraft though at the cost of absolutely no armor protection at all the extra power allowed them to carry four guns instead of two and the aircraft had their navy specific equipment removed such as the tail hooks which helped with aerodynamics none of these aircraft saw combat in the initial winter war of 1939 to 1940 but they would see extensive use in the continuation war the aircraft was actually well suited to the finnish climate its engine had often overheated in the humid pacific air but it was kept nice and cool in these new northern latitudes the buffalo soon earned a reputation amongst finnish pilots for its forgiving handling characteristics good range and surprising ruggedness the buffaloes first went into action on june the 25th 1941. two aircraft intercepted 27 soviet tupolev light bombers shooting down five of them and it was a promising start over the course of the war finnish pilots would amass huge kill scores utilizing smart tactics and making use of the buffalo's good turning abilities they developed a tactic called the swarm four buffaloes would fly out two would fly low two would fly high the low aircraft would act as the bait and the high aircraft would intercept any enemy aircraft that went for them it was a tactic that proved very effective and finland's 24th fighter squadron made excellent use of it by the end of the war that squadron had claimed 459 soviet aircraft destroyed for the loss of just 15 buffaloes in combat now a lot of us know the aircraft as the buffalo but it was actually never called that in finland in fact the name buffalo was given to the aircraft by the british and not the americans the finns had several nicknames for it sky pearl pearl of the northern skies american car and flying beer bottle to name a few but all of them were names given out of affection rather than dissatisfaction and for the first time the buffalo was distinguishing itself as a very successful aircraft by late 1943 new soviet fighters wear and tear and a lack of spare parts did begin to take its toll however pilots would continue to score victories against soviet planes up until mid-1944 which is considered a testament to the aircraft's sturdiness and reliability in 1943 many of the buffaloes began to be replaced by meshes mint bf-109gs supplied by germany however when finland signed to the armistice with the soviet union in 1944 the finnish buffaloes would earn two more victories by shooting down a pair of german ju-87s during the lapland war thus concluding the often overlooked redemption arc in a story that often paints this aircraft as a failure rather than a victim of circumstance [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Rex's Hangar

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Keywords: brewster buffalo, battle of midway, durafly brewster buffalo, ww2, aviation, ww2 history, ww2 documentary, brewster buffalo fighter plane, ww2 finland, finnish air force ww2, world war 2, brewster, carrier fighter, us navy, us marine corps, worst plane of ww2, ww2 documentary 2021, ww2 fighter aircraft, fighter, pilot, finland, RAF, USAF, US Navy, japan, a6m2 zero, zero, singapore, ww2 pacific, ww2 far east

Id: fXoscIeGTO0

Length: 13min 55sec (835 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2021