Shortround6
Major General
You are quite correct in the numbers available and their effect in general.
Armor and at least rudimentary self sealing tanks were being fitted to British and German planes over the winter, true it was in a rather patchwork fashion. Somewhat squadron by squadron.
The Navy had also realized that it didn't really want the F2A-1 and had the prototype converted to pretty much F2A-2 standards and was flying this prototype in July 1939. which is 1 to 2 months after it gets it's first production F2A-1.
Performance of the F2A-1 is hard to come by and is complicated by the fact that the production planes were completed and delivered with a single .50 cal and single .30 cal in the cowl and no wing guns. The wing guns were option and fitted later. As shown above 110 gallons of fuel was pretty much a "standard" load with the full 160 gallons being "overload". So we have to be very careful in regards to just what weight ANY of the Buffaloes were at when performance is mentioned.
I have a hard time believing that an F2A-1 with four guns and 160 gallons of fuel was a 340mph airplane that could climb at 3000fpm using 950-1000hp engine. (some published figures disagree with the FAA data sheets for the engine) and in any case the engine was shifted into high gear on the supercharger around 7-8000ft. This was never going to be a high altitude plane.
The Navy may have been glad to let Finland have the planes as they were promised the same number of F2A-2s to replace them.
I will note that the Cyclone G engine came out in April of 1935, the Cyclone G100 came out in Jan of 1937 and the G200 entered production in March of 1939. Fitting the G200 (or G100) required shorting the fuselage by 5in to maintain the center of gravity.
BTW eight of the Navy's 11 F2A-1s were sent back to the factory and rebuilt into F2A-2s.
The Navy still had a considerable number of Biplanes on it's flight decks in late 1939 and 40 (some stayed through 1941) and would probably not have been happy to see it's monoplane fighters (they got their first two F4Fs in July 1940) disappear into Europe.
Armor and at least rudimentary self sealing tanks were being fitted to British and German planes over the winter, true it was in a rather patchwork fashion. Somewhat squadron by squadron.
The Navy had also realized that it didn't really want the F2A-1 and had the prototype converted to pretty much F2A-2 standards and was flying this prototype in July 1939. which is 1 to 2 months after it gets it's first production F2A-1.
Performance of the F2A-1 is hard to come by and is complicated by the fact that the production planes were completed and delivered with a single .50 cal and single .30 cal in the cowl and no wing guns. The wing guns were option and fitted later. As shown above 110 gallons of fuel was pretty much a "standard" load with the full 160 gallons being "overload". So we have to be very careful in regards to just what weight ANY of the Buffaloes were at when performance is mentioned.
I have a hard time believing that an F2A-1 with four guns and 160 gallons of fuel was a 340mph airplane that could climb at 3000fpm using 950-1000hp engine. (some published figures disagree with the FAA data sheets for the engine) and in any case the engine was shifted into high gear on the supercharger around 7-8000ft. This was never going to be a high altitude plane.
The Navy may have been glad to let Finland have the planes as they were promised the same number of F2A-2s to replace them.
I will note that the Cyclone G engine came out in April of 1935, the Cyclone G100 came out in Jan of 1937 and the G200 entered production in March of 1939. Fitting the G200 (or G100) required shorting the fuselage by 5in to maintain the center of gravity.
BTW eight of the Navy's 11 F2A-1s were sent back to the factory and rebuilt into F2A-2s.
The Navy still had a considerable number of Biplanes on it's flight decks in late 1939 and 40 (some stayed through 1941) and would probably not have been happy to see it's monoplane fighters (they got their first two F4Fs in July 1940) disappear into Europe.
