1949 Schneider Cup Racer
|
 |
Background
The Brewster 'Buffalo' is infamous for its failure against the Japanese, especially the Marines' catastrophe at Midway. But the Ilmailuvoimat (Finnish Air Force) flew forty-four similar Brewster 239s against the Soviet Union, destroying nearly 500 enemy aircraft against combat losses of only seventeen. The Finnish State Aircraft Factory kept the planes in repair for over four years, making minor modifications and improvements, and even building an aerodynamic copy with Finnish methods and materials. "The more we tinkered with it, the better we liked it."
War expenses, plus $300 million in reparations to the Soviet Union, left Finland with scarcely two markkas to rub together. Nevertheless, all that wartime experience, and the attitude of its pilots and support crews towards the Brewster fighter, make it easy to imagine Finland responding to the 1949 Schneider Cup Trophy Race. Ways and means would be found!
Model Information
The 'Vesipuhveli' is made from the old 1960s Revell Brewster Buffalo F3A kit, with floats from the equally-ancient Airfix Arado 196A floatplane. (Both would make fine NABBROKEs [Nostalgic Aging Baby Boomer Real Old Kit Experiences] if only I'd built either back in my Calvin-esque modeling days!) The ventral fin is styrene sheet, as are the twin finlets on the horizontal stabilizer, and "fill" around the landing gear openings.
Racer Development
Several Brewster 239s survived the war and were still serving at training bases when the resurrected Race was announced. Their aerodynamics, systems, and structures were well understood; parts and materials to maintain them were at hand. So were a set of floats of just the right size and type!
During the war, Arado 196A floatplanes of the Luftwaffe operated from Finnish ports to patrol the Baltic. Better armed than most other waterborne aircraft, they aggressively went after enemy ships and planes, and often returned to base with battle damage. One derelict was left behind by the war, and its floats and other equipment proved to be salvagable.
Space in the shop facilities, tooling, and materials were made available at the State Aircraft Factory. Most of the work was by volunteer labor. Engineering students at the University of Helsinki designed a ventral fin and auxiliary finlets for the tail, to improve stability and compensate for the side-area of the twin Arado floats. The primary load-bearing struts were anchored to the landing-gear 'hard points'. These modifications were much like those Edo made to its Grumman F4F 'Wildcatfish', a 'one-off' wartime conversion, sparking speculation that sympathetic Finnish-Americans employed there may have provided some test data and advice. Similarly, discreet technical help may have come from Wright Corporation, which steadily raised output of its 'Cyclone' R-1820-series engines from about 1,000 horsepower in 1940, to over 1400 from surplus B-17 engines it refurbished for use in the new North American T-28 'Trojan' trainers. The Arado floats were already plumbed as fuel tanks, so the conversion was easily able to carry enough fuel to run the whole course, even with its more powerful engine.
Stripped of military equipment (pilot armor, gunsight, armament), and the structural reinforcements to carry them, airframe weight was brought down to 2.02 metric tons (about 4,450 pounds) on floats, scarcely more than 225 kilograms (500 pounds) above the first Brewster prototype XF2A-1.
Christened 'Vesipuhveli' (Water Buffalo), the conversion was painted in Finland's national colors: white for snow and ice, and blue for its skies and inland waters. (33 thousand square kilometers of the latter inspired the request for a racing number.)
Trials
revealed a maximum speed of 356 kilometers per hour (221mph) at sea level.
This was less than well-financed entrants from rich countries, but because
the Vesipuhveli's sturdiness and reliability was based on wartime experience,
it was never late for a scheduled run, nor failed to complete any because
of mechanical problems. On four occasions during Race Week, it flew extra
laps around the course for the crowds and news cameras, while expensive,
cantankerous turbocharged high-tech super-machines were being fussed with.
The crowd loved its barrel lines and Gee Bee-like scalloped paint scheme.
It carried the message that the Finns were thrifty, resourceful, and competent.
That paid off Finland's efforts. Besides overcoming lingering antipathy towards Finland as a wartime ally of Nazi Germany, the plane showed the 'movers-and-shakers' from the world's aviation-related industries how a resurgent Finnish economy advanced to technological quality...not bad for a plane that its originating nation thinks of as a failure!
