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There is a great book called "FLying aces of WWII" it said that Brewster Buffalos flew in the German and FInnish airforce. It said a Finnish ace shot down 32 fighters in the Buffalos.
I know it was a terrible airplane but if anyone knew how it got there i am dying to know
The Finns purchased the remainder of the Brewster F2A-1's contracted for the USN so that the USN could proceed to procure F2A-2's while keeping costs down to a reasonable level.
These F2A-1's were modified with Wright R-1820-G5 engines of 950hp under the company designation: B-239. They were crated and shipped to Sweden where they were assembled and flown to Finland (reportedly by Norwegian volunteers!)
Did you notice how amazingly complete this Buffalo looked when it came out of the water? What a great find!
virtualpilots.fi: bw372lecture
Hopefully they will restore it to flying condition.
I think most folks on this forum are for seeing warbirds where they belong, in the air, but the Buffalo is obviously too rare an aircraft.
I'd like to see it fully restored to airworthy condition, then never flown.
TO
If you never plan on flying it, then there isn't any reason to spend the money to restore it to flyable condition. They can do a static restoration that looks great and spend less money doing so.