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Originally Posted by Panzergranate
From the dedicated website "Annals Of The Brewster Buffalo", which has everything from the RAF evaluation tests in July 1940 to pilot's combat reports through to statistics. Lists of Commonwealth Buffalo aces are also given.
The Buffalo was the most successful fighter of WW2 with a 40:1 kill to loss ratio. The Fins managed a 38:1 kill to loss ratio and the Commonwealth pilots still managed a 2:1 kill to loss ratio.
Against the A6M Zero it enjoyed a 1.39:1 kill to loss ratio.
The Fins manufactured their own engine parts and other spares for the Buffalo and also fitted bigger cylinder bores in line with Wright's own improvements.
Note that the Humu (Reckless) flew with a 950 HP engine taken from an I-153and was found to be underpowered compared to the 1,100 HP Cyclone.
The P-36 A-3 had a 950 HP engine, whilst the ex-French Airforce "Cauldron" P-36 A-4 aircraft, bought from the Nazi's, were powered by 1,100 HP engines.
One unusual feature of a Buffalo, which is never found on any other fighter, is a seperate cargo hold and seperate passenger space under the pilot.
The maximum range of a Buffalo is 1,065 miles without drop tanks or 10.5 hours in the air.
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You do realize, that the only Buffalos that were sent to Finland, were F2A-1's which were powered by R-1820-34 Cyclones that were only 940-50hp. The British Commonwealth, Dutch, and the American serviced Buffalo's were later powered by the R-1820-40 that had the 1,1-1,200hp engines because after Finland allied with Germany, America quit sending Buffalo parts to Finland, and they were forced to use the Russian M-62-63s that were the Soviet copies of the R-1820-34 Cyclones. There's no way Finland could have been given later modeled Buffalos because of their alliance with Germany.
So once again, the only Buffalo's Finland owned were the 44 F2A-1s that had the -34 Cyclone which only had 940-50hp. There's no where that I can find in my books, or the internet that say the Finnish manufactured their own Cyclone type engines. They did however take the spare parts off ruined/crashed I-153s and I-16s that would fit with their Cyclone engines.
EDIT: See, you're looking at the -2 and -3 Buffalo's which had the 1,1-1,200hp. Both of which were terrible because Doolittle was pushing for high octane fuel (high leaded gasoline), and also because they were fitted with more junk. That's the reason the Finnish had such a great success with the Buffalo was because they didn't mess around with adding stuff. They more or less just skeletonize'd the damn thing for lighter weight, while the Americans at Midway had heavier Buffalos.