Brewster F2A/B239/B339 Buffalo 

The Brewster F2A Buffalo was a shoulder-mounted-wing monoplane fighter developed by the Brewser Aeronautical Corporation prior to WWII.  Per Reference [8] first flight for the F2A was on 2 December 1937 wih the type entering service in April 1939.  A total of 509 of all variants were produced.

Overall variants of the Buffalo family of aircraft served not only with the US Navy, the US Marine Corps, the UK Royal Air Force, the UK Royal Navy (in very small numbers), the Royal Australian Air Force, the Air Forces of the Netherland East Indies, and the Finnish Air Force.  In addition this type was ordered by Beligium but only two were delivered before Belgium was over run, and additional aircraft was ordered by Poland but production didn't start befroe that country was over run.

The primary variants analyzed at this website include:

• the XF2A-1 Prototype
• the 1st Production F2A-1
• later production F2A-1 aircraft
• the XF2A-2 Prototype
• the Production F2A-2
• the Production F2A-3
• the B239 Export Variant - Export Version for Finland
• the B339B Export Variant - Export Version for Belgium
• the B339C Export Variant - Export Version for the Netherlands East Indies
• the B339D Export Variant - 2nd Export Version for the Netherlands East Indies
• the B339E Export Variant  - Export Version for the United Kingdom and Australia

The XF2A-1 was the initially fitted with a relatively small spade shaped vertical tail, whose shape was increased resulting in a more triangular shape.  The production F2A aircraft were originally part of a 54 plane order by the US Navy, but part way into the prodcution run, a proposal was accepted to declare 43 of this variant surplus to Navy needs, which were to be replaced by an improved F2A-2 variant.  This allowed the 43 surplus F2A-1 orders (plus one additional aircraft) to be reconfigured and sold to Finland, as the demilitarized commercial variant B239.   The XF2A-2 was a modified F2A fitted with additional guns, and a revised engine cowling, among other modifications.  The production run of the F2A consisted of 43 aircraft to replace the 43 F2A-1 aircraft previously declared surplus.

The B339B/C/D/ & E variants were export versions of the aircraft based of the F2A-2 design but modified for use by different foreign customers. The Beligan B339B was for 40 aircraft but only two appeared to have been delivered to Europe before the fall of Belgium and France. Six of these remainder of that order appear to have been off loaded on the French Caribbean island of Martinique when their naval transport was interred, while the remainder appear to have been taken over by the UK with some serving in various roles in the Mediteranenan with the Royal Navy, from land bases.

The Netherland East Indies ordered 24 B339C and 48 B339D aircraft, for use in Java and the surrounding area.  The UK ended up ordering 170 aircraft primarily for use by the Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Forces in Singapore, Malaysia and Burma, with Royal New Zealand Pilots many many of the Royal Air Force aircraft.

The F2A-3 was a revised variant of the F2A-2 aircraft with a more powerful engine, more self-protection, and a lengthened fuselage (to improve the weight balance die to the heavier engine).  After the Battle of Midway the F2A-3 was withdrawn from combat and used as an advanced trainer.  The Netherlands East Indies also ordered about 20 B339-23 export variant aircraft that were nominally based on the F2A-3 design, but with a less powerful commercial engine, som of which got diverted to Australia with the fall of Java and the surrounding Netherlands East Indies territories.  A few of these aircraft eventually found there way into Royal Australian Air Force or USAAC service in small numbers.  Unfortunately weight data is not currently available for this variant for analyses.

As shown in the images below distinguishing features of this aircraft including;

• a radial engine 
  
• a "plexiglass" razorback configuration aft the cockpit 
• a framed "birdcage" type canopy
• a shoulder mounted fixed wings
  
• main landing gear that retracted inward into the wings and fuselage, leaving the landing wheels exposed in the fuselage
• a bottom mounted window beneath the cockpit (which was eventually covered over in some variants, especially the F2A-3, which had a fuel tank installed beneath the cockpit which have blocked the downward visibility from the cockpit)
  

[Image Sources: Public Domain via Ref [8] - as annotated by this site]

[Source: Ref [14a] - US Government/Public Domain]

In order to try and better develop weight estimating relationships an effort has been made to estimate the length of the fuselage aft of the firewall, and the length of the engine section forward of the firewall based off scaled drawings.  Together these two distances add to a term called the "structural length" and do not consider any portion of the engine or propeller shaft the extend foward of the fuselage/cowling, or any empennage that extends aft of the fuselage structure.  The drawing below shows the current best estimate of these dimensions obtained from available drawings of the airplane and will be updated with any real world data that becomes available.  For any aircraft with an inclined firewall, an attempt has been made to locate an approximate center of this location.



















The table below summarizes the current data collected on this type aircraft, identifying sources for the data

		X F2A-1	F2A-1 #1	F2A-1	XF2A-2	F2A-2	F2A-3	F2A-3	F2A-3	B239	B239	339B	339D	339E	Secondary Source	Notes
Reference Sources		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	4	1	1	1
No of Crew		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Engine:
Qty		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Model		XR-1820-22	R-1820-34	R-1820-34	R-1820-40	R-1820-40	R-1820-40	R-1820-40	R-1820-40	R-1820-G5(-34)N548A	R-1820-G5	R-1820-G105	R-1820-G205	R-1820-G105	8
Displacement	(cu in)	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	1820	8
Power
Military	(HP)
War Emergency	(HP)
Normal	(HP)	850	850	850	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	850	850	900	1000	900	8
Take Off	(HP)	950	950	950	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	950	950	1100	1200	1100	8
Eng Dims
Length	(ft)	3.59	3.59	3.59	4.03	4.03	4.03	4.03	4.03	3.59	3.59	4.01	4.17	4.01	8
Width/Dia	(ft)	4.52	4.52	4.52	4.59	4.59	4.59	4.59	4.59	4.52	4.52	4.59	4.59	4.59	8
Height	(ft)
Base Engine Wt	(lb)	1105	1114	1114	1315	1315	1315	1315	1315	1114	1114	1272	1302	1272	8
Propeller
# Blades		3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Dia	(ft)	9	9	9				10.25	10.25	9	9			10.08
Manufacturer
Type
Wing
Span	(ft)	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35	35
Root Thickness	(%)	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%	18.0%
	(in)	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16
Total Area	(sq ft)	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9	208.9
Wing (less Ailerons & Flaps)	(sq ft)	177.16	177.16	177.16	177.16	177.16	177.16	177.16	177.16	177.16	177.3	177.16	177.16	177.16
Ailerons	(sq ft)	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3	15.3
Flaps	(sq ft)	16.44	16.44	16.44	16.44	16.44	16.44	16.44	16.44	16.44	16.3	16.44	16.44	16.44
Tail Area	(sq ft)	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	58.7	3
V Tail Area	(sq ft)	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	19.2	3
Fin	(sq ft)	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3	10.3
Rudder	(sq ft)	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9	8.9
H Tail Area	(sq ft)	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	39.5	3
Stabilizer	(sq ft)	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6	22.6
Elevator	(sq ft)	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9	16.9
Total Control Surf Area	(sq ft)	57.54	57.54	57.54	57.54	57.54	57.54	57.54	57.54	57.54	57.4	57.54	57.54	57.54
Length
Overall	(ft)	25.61	25.61	25.61	25.61	25.61	26.36	26.36	26.36	26.01	26.04	26.01	26.01	26.01
Fuselage	(ft)	26.1
Body	(ft)	24.12	24.12	24.12	24.12	24.12	24.12	24.12	24.40	24.12		24.12	24.12	24.12
Body Depth	(ft)
Body Width	(ft)
Fuel Tank Volume	(gal)
Wing Tanks	(gal)
FuselageTanks	(gal)
Oil Tank Volume	(gal)
Water Injection Fluid Tank Volume	(gal)
Wetted Area (sqf)	(sq ft)
Pwr Ldng	(lb/HP)				4.51	4.52	5.43		6.02		5.28
Wing Ldng	(lb/sq ft)	23.93	24.19	24.20	25.89	25.94	31.20		34.61		24.01	26.03	29.17	29.26
Struct. Des. GW	(lb)								6510
Ultimate Load Factor	(G's)								11.3
Design Speed	(mph)
Not to Exceed Speed	(mph)
Total Struct Weight		1757.84	1806.8	1803.5		1812.3	2038.7	1954	2057	1782.2	1802.5	1719.1	1953.7	1887.8
Total Wing		698.52	739.2	732.8		723	870.9	811	845	738	758.3	701.5	866.9	843.5
Wing											679.2
Ailerons											28.8
Flaps											18
Fuselage Carry-Through
Tail		104.17	106.4	107		107	107	105	105	107	107	107	107	107
H Tail									69		65.9
Stabilizer											32.6
Elevator											33.3
V Tail									36		39.2
Fin											21.6
Rudder											17.6
Body + Eng Section + LG		955.15
Body + LG			818.3	820.3		846.9	895.7	1038	1084	937.2	937.2	783	816.4	809.7
Body								587	656	553.6	553.6
Fuselage								350		410.2	410.2
Engine Section			142.9	143.4		135.4	165.1	237		143.4	143.4	127.6	163.4	127.6
Landing Gear								451	428	383.6	383.6
Mn Landing Gr									384		348.7
Tail/Nose Aux LG									44		34.9
Tail Hook									23
Booms
Nacelles
Total Propulsion Weight		1540.5	1552.8	1555.3		1893.6	2087.9	2138	2130	1555.4	1555.9	1838.9	1819.8	1896.4
Engine w/ Accessories								1370	1381	1186.2	1186.2
Engine(s) as Installed									1300	1100	1100
Accessories									81	86.2	86.2
Turbocharger(s)
Controls								12	12	11.3	11.8
Propeller(s)								339	339	262	262
2-Blade
3-Blade								339	339	262	262
4-Blade
Starting System								40	40	41.6	41.6
Water Injection System
Tanks
Piping Etc
Cooling System								4		-
Lube System								87	87	26.7	26.7
Tanks
Piping Etc
Fuel System								286	271	27.6	27.6
Tanks
Piping Etc
Total Sys. & Eqpmt.		423.21	423.4	426.3		443.9	638.7	640	683	406	406	461.7	508.5	484
Instruments								55	48	39.8	39.8
Surface Controls								80	74	73.7	73.7
Hydraulics								36	35	-
Electrical Equip								157	155	139	127.2
Electronics (Purple means incl in Furn/Gray in Useful Ld)									61
Arm Prov/Equipment & Armor								230	225	(IN USEFUL LOAD)
Furnishings								56	85	143.8	143.8
Anti-Ice (If not in Furn)
Other /Misc								26		9.7	8.1
Hoisting Gear
Floatation Gear
Armor Plate
Empty Wt		3721.55	3783	3785.1	4131.2	4149.8	4765.3	4732	4870	3743.6	3751	4019.7	4282	4268.2
Basic Mission Useful Load		1278	1270	1270.1	1278	1268.7	1753.3		2359		1265	1417.2	1812.5	1844
Crew		200	200	200	200	200	200		200		200	200	200	200
Equipment		128.7	128	128.1	128.7	126.7	132.8					86.2	89.8	160.7
Oil		68	68	68	68	68	68		83		68	68	68	68
Fuel		660	660	660	660	660	660		960		660	660	660	660
Fuel & Oil Trapped in Systems
Water Solution for Engine Injection
Bombs/Torp Etc
Radio (if Not Included in Empty Wt)											112
Nav Equipment											0
Oxygen System
Armament		221.3	214	214	221.3	214	692.5		690		207.9	403	794.7	755.3
Guns & Ammo									690
Guns									300		204
Ammo									390
Pyrotechnics											3.9
Camera
Other
Other Useful Load									426		17.1
Basic Mission GW		4999.55	5053	5055.2	5409.2	5418.5	6518.6		7229		5016	5436.9	6094.5	6112.2

Notes: This website has been developed with a number of low cost or free programs including Hot Metal Pro, KompoZer, MicroSoft Designer and Da Button Factory.com

Rev 3-22-26

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