All about the Brewster F2A Buffalo fighter of World War II, which fared so poorly against the Japanese in the Pacific but was a star in the hands of Finnish pilots flying against the Russian air force in the 'Continuation War', 1941-1944

The runway of Brewster Field in Warminster PA, now a community park and playground

I wasn't very kind to Jimmy Work in The Sorry Saga of the Brewster Buffalo. He was, I wrote, "a balding man with soulful eyes, a gentle smile, and a good suit. You might have picked him to manage your retirement account – probably not the best idea you’d ever have." He was a dodgy businessman who built planes that rarely did the job expected of them. Among his failures was the Brewster Buccaneer scout bomber, to be built at a new factory in Warminster, Pennsylvania. Thing went so badly there that the US Navy tired of him and the Brewster Company, and seized "Brewster Field" in Warminster as a plant to modify or manufacture planes from more successful manufacturers, including the Brewster F3A "Corsair," a copy of the powerful Chance Vought fighter-bomber flown by Pappy Boyington's Black Sheep and other squadrons down to the 1960s.

It turns out that Jimmy Work, for all his faults as a businessman and airframe manufacturer, had a good heart. I was pleased to get email recently from Robin Lupinacci. "I just read your piece on James Work and Brewster Aircraft," he wrote. "My dad was a college student, president of the student body of National Farm School in New Britain," not far from Warminster, which explains why Brewster would locate its new factory there.

"Mr Work was President of National Farm School Alumni Association. When my dad led a strike that closed the school in 1938, and he [and other strikers] were quietly expelled, Mr Work helped them out, sending my dad to Rutgers. Anyway the war came and my dad was involved building the airfield adjacent to the new plant. And you may add that my father Sam Lupinacci left the airfield job to join up and was decorated for service in Germany. Mr. Work saw the Farm School transition to a four year institution, Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture, and served as President of the college for thirty years into the 1970s."

All's well that ends well. Blue skies! — Dan Ford