[firebrand]

My father worked on the Brewster Buffaloes. The workers were encouraged to improve production speed and some of them made innovations that moved things along more quickly.

The planes were designed for maneuverability but as the war demanded were weighed down with more stuff than the designers envisioned. They were not a match for the Zeros, nor for the later planes, and Midway was just about their last hurrah.

Louis Bamberger, owner of the Newark department store that later became part of Macy’s, was a big plane buff and after the war displayed a Buffalo on the top floor of the store. I was just a bit of a thing but I clearly remember by father gazing on this plane with awe for quite a while. Two other things struck me: (1) the very fact of an airplane in a department store, and (2) how tiny it was.

[calex59]

Yes, by the time WWII rolled around the Buffaloes were pretty much obsolete. very interesting about your father working on them. The wildcat was faster than the Zero but was not as maneuverable, except for one thing the Zero couldn't really turn to the right while in a dive. Also, the Thatch weave turned things around also, allowed us to hand on until the Hellcat and the bent wing bird(Corsair)could come into play.

People like your father and other workers who came up with ideas and increased production beyond anything believed possible, actually won our war for us.