A grazing Buffalo

[Shay]

Flickr. Gotta be one of the best color wartime images of this rare beasty.



Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[Tulio]

I didn't know that the Germans had flown the Brewsters.... A captured airplane perchance?


Saludos,


Tulio


I know it is Finnish, just stirring the pot.

[Old SAR pilot]

No, that was the insignia used by the Finnish Air Force from, IIRC, 1918 - 1945. More info on the swastika at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

[MacHarvard]

Well, gentlemen, ready for a shock? This isn't a Buffalo. Well, not exactly. It's the result of Finnish reverse engineering and was built of wood and readily available materials. This is the only one exisiting and was rebuilt in the mid-70s.

http://www.warbirdforum.com/faf3.htm

cheers
Doug

[Ken]

Isn't this airframe, recovered from a lake in Finland, the only surviving Brewster?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz0RDOk0 ... re=related

[MacHarvard]

I could be wrong, of course, but I think you'll find you are referring to BW-371, pulled out of a Russian Lake a few years ago.

Doug

[Holedigger]

372 perhaps? Indeed another rare bird.
http://www.warbirdforum.com/372.htm

[Dan K]

The original pic is of HM-671 -- A Humu -- not quite a Buffalo. It's currently on display at the Central Finland Aviation Museum.

BW-372 is at this location as well. Move the camera around here to see both Humu and Brewster on display.

http://www.airforcemuseum.fi/flash.asp?file=1


My rabid side questions the vintage of the original pic.

[John Dupre]

As near as I can figure it there were at least two and maybe three Humu's built. One used a genuine F2A fuselage and a wooden wing along with a Russian copy of the R1820. The surviving example apparently has a Finnish copied all metal fuselage and the wooden wing and Russian engine. The performance of the Humu was not as good as the Brewster and because of the wing construction could only have mounted two .50 cal.s in the fuselage.

Finland was a fascinating place in the late 1950s to 1960s. I have seen pics of Bf 109s parked out with light trainers and another of a Curtiss Hawk with two pairs of wings. The photo was taken in 1960 and the aircraft was scrapped a few years later. There is also a story that in the late 40s a Hollywood producer was looking for Brewsters to tell the story of Midway Island. The Finns had four or five left intact and were willing to sell but the production never happened and the planes were all scrapped.

Well, gentlemen, ready for a shock? This isn't a Buffalo. Well, not exactly. It's the result of Finnish reverse engineering and was built of wood and readily available materials. This is the only one exisiting and was rebuilt in the mid-70s.

http://www.warbirdforum.com/faf3.htm

cheers
Doug