The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation’s follow-on to the lackluster SBA/SBN scout bomber was the SB2A Buccaneer. This later aircraft was designed with an internal bay for a 1,000-pound bomb load and was fitted with two forward-firing .30-caliber machine guns in the wings and two in the forward fuselage and a two-gun dorsal gun turret, connected to the cockpit by a solid fuselage. Only some of the SB2A variants had folding wings and arresting hooks to make them suitable for carrier operations.
The prototype XSB2A-1 made its first flight on 17 June 1941. Large orders for the aircraft already were on the books: Britain ordered 750 in July 1940—with the name Bermuda—and the Dutch government-in-exile in Britain ordered 162 for use in the Dutch East Indies.1 The U.S. Navy ordered 140 of the bombers on 24 December 1940. Production aircraft dispensed with the dorsal power turret in favor of twin .30-caliber guns in the aft cockpit (the prototype having had a dummy turret).
The 162 planes ordered by the Dutch were taken over by the U.S. Navy and designated SB2A-4. These were flown primarily as trainers by Marine squadrons, especially Night Fighter Squadron 531, the first night-fighting unit of that service. The Bermudas, flown by the Royal Air Force, were employed as trainers and target-tows; none was flown operationally.
A total of 771 Buccaneers and Bermudas were produced by Brewster. Records indicate that none was flown in combat.
After Brewster suffered financial, labor, and management problems, the Navy seized the firm on 18 April 1942, and it put George Conrad Westervelt, former head of the Naval Aircraft Factory, in charge.2 The following month the Navy appointed a new board of directors for the firm.
With its production of Brewster designs coming to an end, the company was assigned a Navy contract to manufacture the highly successful Vought Corsair, the best-performing carrier fighter of the war. The Brewster model was designated F3A-1. (Similarly, Goodyear was producing the Corsair as the FG and F2G.)
Brewster produced 735 F3A-1s. Problems with the firm’s production techniques and quality control led to these aircraft being red-lined for speed and prohibited from executing radical maneuvers after several lost their wings. That failure was traced to poor quality wing fittings. None of the Brewster-built Corsairs reached front-line units.
The company’s poor performance caused the Navy to cancel the Corsair contract on 1 July 1944. By that time Brewster was operating three plants, in Long Island City, New York; Newark, New Jersey; and Warminister Township, Pennsylvania (known at the time as Naval Air Station Johnsville).3
With the cancellation the firm’s management and the Bureau of Aeronautics decided to shut down operations, and Brewster Aeronautical Corporation was dissolved on 5 April 1946. In the aircraft manufacturing business for little more than a decade, Brewster produced several hundred aircraft of its own designs—none of which was memorable.
1. Following the German conquest of Holland in May 1940, a Dutch government-in-exile was established in England.
2. Westervelt was head of the Naval Aircraft Factory from 1921 to 1927; he retired from the Navy with the rank of captain.
3. The Corsair was in production longer than any other piston-engine combat aircraft of any nation, with deliveries from 1940 to 1952. Total production of all models was 15,056 aircraft, including 2,486 that went directly to other countries. Corsairs also were transferred to several other countries after U.S. service.
Brewster SB2A-4 BUCCANEER
Type: Scout bomber
Crew: Pilot, observer-gunner
Max. weight: 13,811 pounds (with 1,000-pound bomb)
Engines: 1 Pratt & Whitney R-2600-8A radial; 1,700 hp
Length: 39 feet, 2 inches
Wingspan: 47 feet
Wing area: 379.2 square feet
Height: 15 feet, 5 inches
Max. speed: 275 mph at 12,000 feet
Range: 1,095 statute miles
1,750 statute miles without bomb load
Ceiling: 25,400 feet
Armament: 8 .30-caliber machine guns (2 in fuselage; 4 in wings; 2 in aft cockpit)
1,000 pounds of bombs