Brewster
SB2A Buccaneer & Bermuda (dive bomber)
The Buccaneer dive bomber, was developed by Brewster in parallel
with the Curtiss SB2C. The two aircraft looked very similar. Handling
and production problems caused two years delay, and the USN had
no need for a new dive bomber when the SB2A was finally available.
Many were used as target tugs, others were scrapped straight from
the production line
The SB2A Buccaneer is a prime example of how a design that looked
good on paper in 1939 can be woefully lacking by 1941. Between
the drawing board and the production line, the SB2A put on substantial
additional weight that overwhelmed her 1,700 horse power engine
and out dated air frame, resulting in a ship that proved to be,
slow, sluggish, and with unpleasant handling qwerks.  Though
many other stats appear comparable to the Grumman TBF on paper,
her inferior wing area, bomb load, and real world performance
put her way behind the Avenger (see right).
As WWII loomed, the entire initial delivery of Buccaneers were
quickly relegated to training duties. 162 non folding wing Buccaneers
ordered by the Dutch were taken over by the Navy, christened the
"SB2A-4," and used by the Marines as trainers for the
first two years of the War. Perhaps the high point of the Buccaneers
service for the Navy was their use in the Marines first Night
Fighter squadron.
The British ordered the SB2A under Lend Lease as the "Bermuda,"
and quickly came to the same conclusion as the Americans, Most
were quickly relegated to duties such as target tug towing- although
there is a report that they were used with some success as a level
bomber in the plane starved India-Burma campaign.
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The Brewster Bermuda is the name given by
the RAF to the Brewster SB2A. In the US Navy service, the
aircraft was the SB2A "Buccaneer." The Bermuda
was not carrier-capable, although it was designed as a dive
bomber. |
Brewster
SB2A Buccaneer
Brewster Aircraft Company
Power plant: One Wright R-2600-8
radial engine 1,700 HP
Wingspan: 47 ft
Length: 39 ft
Height: 15.4 ft
Wing area: 379 sq ft
Weight empty: 9,923 lb
Max. Wt: 14,288 lb
Speed: 274 mph
Ceiling: 24,900 ft
Range: 1,672 miles
Armament 2x 12.7mm and
4x 7.62mm machine guns, 450 kg bombs
Crew: Two
Date deployed: 1940
Number built: 1,052 |
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Purchase Information
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Brewster SB2A Buccaneer
model by Rob Carleen.
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What people say...
There's quite a bit of info on it....including
a video of the pilot's familiarization film on the web. It
did a lot of home front support
 duty,
in a lot of roles from target tug to night fighter trainer.
It's a big brute of a plane---actually not bad looking once
you get used to it. Just a sky clunk, though. ROB
I was stationed at Warminster for three years,
and remember the thing (see photo) as a pile of scrap--very
little progress was made during the time I was there. Most
of the difficult work was performed here in Pensacola. The
crew assigned had to hand craft many of the airframe parts
from the original drawings. I would hate to see the guys down
here fail to get credit for their tireless efforts to get
it right. Rob
Wow. That's the first new addition to the WWII
folder in a while isn't it? Very nice work. Very interesting
plane. Great stuff Rob Dan RM
Ditto! Nice lookin' birdie, even if it wasn't
worth a hoot...Z
The Buccaneer must be one of the ugliest planes
ever built. I don't know how you did it, but your Buccaneer
actually looks attractive!!! Great job! BTW a little typo
on the sheets (you probably got a million e-mails about that
already) the proper spelling would be handling "quirks",
not "qwerks". Thanks for churning out such great
models!!! YMP Norman Gorn
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HISTORY:
 The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation was a North
American defense contractor that operated from the 1930s until the
end of World War II. It remains controversial to this day.
It started existence as an aircraft division of Brewster & Co.,
a company that originally sold carriages and had branched into automobile
bodies and airplane parts. In 1932, Jimmy Work, an aeronautical
engineer, bought the division for $30,000 and created the Brewster
Aeronautical Corporation. Brewster started out making seaplane floats
and wing panels, but with the hire of chief engineer Dayton Brown,
it embarked on its own designs. It operated three aircraft plants,
in Queens, New York, Newark, New Jersey, and Warminster Township,
Pennsylvania.
Brown's first, in 1934, was a two-seat scout-bomber, the Brewster
SBA, which first flew in 1936, but subsequently the Naval Aircraft
Factory built them, with the designation SBN-1. The SB2A Buccaneer
was a follow-on design that first flew in 1941 and was also used
by the Royal Air Force, who named it the "Bermuda".
A design in 1936 for a carrier-capable monoplane resulted in the
Brewster F2A (nicknamed "Buffalo" by the British), which
was chosen over a biplane version of the F4F Wildcat. The Buffalo
prototype handled well in 1938 tests, and the Navy ordered 54. However,
production was slow, at least partly due to an inefficient factory
in Queens, New York. The Navy ended up ordering Wildcats, which
by 1938 had been greatly improved.
The Buffalo was exported to Finland starting in 1939, and more were
intended for Belgium, but the country was overrun in the early stages
of World War II, before deliveries could begin. The United Kingdom
also received Buffalos, which eventually ended up in the East Indies.
They engaged in combat with Japanese Zeros and suffered badly. The
Buffalos were most popular with the Finns, who modified them and
used them successfully against the Russian air force.
 During WWII it became apparent that Brewster was mismanaged. The
company had grown from a relatively minor aircraft parts supplier
to a fully-fledged defense giant in only a few years. Jimmy Work
had hired Alfred and Ignacio
Miranda as the company salesmen. They had been involved on frauds,
spending two years in prison for selling illicit arms to Bolivia,
and had over-promised Brewster production capabilities to customers.
As WWII had swelled the defense industries, the quality of the newly
hired work force was inferior in skills and often motivation, and
the work was plagued by illicit strikes and even outright sabotage
was suspected. The Navy installed a George Chapline as president
of the company, easing out Jimmy Work, in the hopes of speeding
up production, but then in early 1942 Jimmy Work regained control
of the company, just in time to be sued for $10 million for financial
misdeeds. In May 1942 the Navy simply seized Brewster and put the
head of the Naval Aircraft Factory in charge.
For what it's worth:
A buccan is a native South American and Caribbean name for a wooden
framework or hurdle on which meat was roasted or smoked over a fire,
similar to the original meaning of a barbecue.
The term "Buccaneer" for pirates or privateers, is said
to be derived from buccan. In the Caribbean, these seafarers would
smoke fish, wild pigs and turtles to provision their ships.
When the Navy cancelled Brewster's last contract, for assembly of
the F3A-1 Corsair, the company was in serious trouble. In October,
after reporting a large loss, the management decided to shut down
the company, and on April 5, 1946, the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation
was dissolved by its shareholders.
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