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| - The Buffalo was designed by Dayton T Brown and R D MacCart in response to a 1936 United States Navy requirement for a carrier based fighter. The Buffalo prototype was ordered on 22 June 1936, and made its first flight, as the XF2A-1 (B-139), in December 1937. 54 examples designated F2A-1 (B-239), each powered by a 940 hp R-1820-34 radial engine, and armed with one 7.62mm and three 12.7mm machine guns, were ordered on 11 June 1938, ahead of competing designs from Grumman and Seversky,
- The Brewster F2A Buffalo was 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, the Buffalo turned out to be a disappointment for the USN and USMC because weight of added equipment wasn't balanced by an increase in horsepower.
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| abstract
| - The Buffalo was designed by Dayton T Brown and R D MacCart in response to a 1936 United States Navy requirement for a carrier based fighter. The Buffalo prototype was ordered on 22 June 1936, and made its first flight, as the XF2A-1 (B-139), in December 1937. 54 examples designated F2A-1 (B-239), each powered by a 940 hp R-1820-34 radial engine, and armed with one 7.62mm and three 12.7mm machine guns, were ordered on 11 June 1938, ahead of competing designs from Grumman and Seversky,
- The Brewster F2A Buffalo was 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, the Buffalo turned out to be a disappointment for the USN and USMC because weight of added equipment wasn't balanced by an increase in horsepower. Several nations, including Finland, Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands, ordered the Buffalo. Of all the users, the Finns were the most successful with their Buffalos, flying them in combat against early Soviet fighters with excellent results. During the Continuation War of 1941–1944, the B-239s (a de-navalized 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 achieving in the first phase of that conflict 32 Soviet aircraft shot down for every B-239 lost. and producing 36 Buffalo "aces". In December 1941, Buffalos operated by both British Commonwealth (B-339E) and Dutch (B-339D) air forces in South East Asia suffered severe losses in combat against the Japanese Navy's Mitsubishi 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 increase performance, but it made little difference. After the first few engagements, the Dutch halved the fuel and ammo load in the wing, which allowed their Buffalos (and their Hurricanes) to stay with the Oscars in turns. The Buffalo was built in three variants for the U.S. Navy, the F2A-1, F2A-2 and F2A-3. (In foreign service, with lower horsepower engines, these types were designated B-239, B-339, and B-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." The F2A-3, however, was significantly inferior to the F2A-2 variant used by the Navy before the outbreak of the war.
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