Dear lord, I just read about Brewster's other aircraft, including its version of the Corsair. Brewster's planes were so bad they were falling apart in the air and pretty much none of their aircraft made their performance estimates.
The
factory conditions were something out of a Russ Meyer film. Or perhaps Porky's or maybe Gung Ho is more accurate? Regardless, the article is a very sad read and summarizes how little the government thought about Brewster's aircraft.
People were having sex on the assembly floor inside the planes. Crews were notorious for forgetting tools in the aircraft after they were completed, leaving pilots to wonder what the rattling sound was. The Brewster plant was seized by the government at one point and it even had a worker strike in the middle of the war.
The
Brewster XA-32 also deserves some discussion. It was a really bad airplane, particularly for the year it was released (and cancelled).
Unfortunately the article you link is not available to us in the UK (GDPR restrictions)
There were 3 Brewster plants.
Brewster Building, Long Island, New York - the main pre-war factory and company headquarters.
Newark, New Jersey - where aircraft from New York were assembled and flown
Warminster Township, Pennsylvania - acquired in 1941 and where the SB2A Buccaneer/Bermuda was built.
F2A Buffalo production came to an end at New York in April 1942 with only 20 aircraft produced that year.
SB2A production of completed airframes acceptable to the customer began in the Pennsylvania factory in July 1942 and continued until May 1944. That was despite there being contracts in place with Britain & the Dutch since mid-1940 and the USN since Dec 1940.
F3A Corsair production contract was awarded 1 Nov 1941 and the first production aircraft was produced in June 1943 at Long Island. It peaked in May 1944 at 122 aircraft and continued until July 1944.
By way of comparison Goodyear was awarded a Corsair production contract in Dec 1941 and was able to start production in April 1943. By May 1944 its production was 220 aircraft. I don't know how the size of the workforces compared in the two plants.
The USN took over all the Brewster plants by Presidential Order in April 1942 due not to the quality of the product, but because there was no product at all emerging from the factories. And many of the problems with the Buccaneer/Bermuda, which had already started rolling off the line, were design problems, in particular related to aileron flutter in the dive, as well as quality issues. But those problems in the company couldn't be sorted due to various management problems, including the main shareholders being in jail! Add to that labour issues and rumours of sabotage. A lot of this is laid out in the Congressional enquiry that took place. transcripts of that can be accessed for free via Google Books. This is a good place to start.
As for the strikes, Brewster was not the only company affected. I've found one occasion reported in the NY Times that there had been a strike by both Ford and Brewster workers at NY plants at the same time, with the Ford plant affecting about 3 times the number of employees as Brewster. Sadly WW2 did not somehow miraculously make strikes go away. In Britain 1944 was the peak year for strikes with over 2000 occurring with an estimated loss of 3.7m days production. And this article about strikes in the USA in 1942.
As strikes across the U.S. slow down the economy, President Roosevelt has chosen to intervene: four times he has ordered the Army or Navy to take over striking factories. In the six months between …
And before being too critical of Brewster employees in WW2 leaving tools etc in wartime built aircraft, there is an example in the recent past concerning the quality of various Boeing products coming out of their factories with tools and other materials left in airliner fuel tanks etc.
I won't try to defend the Bucanneer/Bermuda. It was an aircraft with problems which Brewster never got on top of, probably due to all its internal corporate problems. But there were other aircraft in WW2 which also had major gestational problems before reaching front line service. Take a look at the problems that befell the SB2A competitor from Curtiss, the SB2C Helldiver. Prototypes of both had been ordered by the USN in April / May 1939. Production contracts awarded by the USN in Nov/Dec 1940. First flights were in Jun 1941 & Dec 1940 respectively. But it took until Sept 1942 for the first production SB2C to be accepted (2 months after the SB2A). The first squadron formed in Dec 1942 but it took another 11 months before it entered combat, much of it sorting out teething problems. It too came out of a brand new factory.