WesWorld

(Just the highlights, not really feeling 100% yet...)

Marines in Bolivia, minor brawls, nothing major.

Curtiss F14C and Grumman F4F chosen as finalists for new Navy fighter. Both similar, slight performance edge to the Curtiss, armament edge to Grumman. Douglas, Vought and Northrop deliver prototypes of new torpedo and scout bombers.



Preparations for San Francisco talks begin. Little hope of success is forecast in professional circles.

Coast Guard announces two new heavy icebreakers for Alaskan service, Bear and Rush will begin construction next year. They will be equipped with seaplanes and moderate armament.


The new Navy airship Bismarck was laid down in Akron on April 23rd while on June 14th the Albuquerque was laid down in the large drydock in Charleston.

Atlantic Clipper makes her first trans-Atlantic voyage from Lakehurst to Friedrichshafen. She will also make voyages to Cleito.

Isn't a bow prop on an icebreaker a slight problem?

Where is the Brewster Buffalo in the fighter competition? or is too ugly to take part

Bow props were actually quite common on US icebreaker designs of the era. They didn't work worth a damn, but they were quite common. It will probably get removed after the blades get smashed a couple of times. That's what happened in real life. The intent was to use the prop wash to clear away ice around the bow after it was broken but it was too vulnerable to damage.

As for the Buffalo, it, and other designs from that ill fated company, have been "donated" to Brazil. (And they can keep 'em!)

Bow props are only about 40% efficient but for icebreakers they are pretty useful. They break up the ice into smaller pieces with the prop wash. The problem is the mounting position. There, the icebreaker will slide up the maerform bow onto the ice and carry on into the prop. Today with under hull azipods its possible for it to work without damage.

The Buffalo wasn't such a bad fighter when they removed most of the armament and all of the armour.

The Sienar Fleet Systems V-31 (aka F2A Buffalo) should fly in mid 1935.

At the moment, Sienar notes that their offer of the V-19 (SBA) to the US was not taken up, grumbles a bit, and goes back to the drawing board.

In OTL in the hands of the Finns the Brewster B239 "Buffalo" was the FiAF's main fighter until 1943. Results with this fighter were very good, even though the type was considered to be a failure in the US Navy & with British Far East forces. In the Finnish use, the Brewster had a victory rate of 32:1 - 459 kills while losing only 15. The last kill of a Brewster was a Stuka shot down during the Lapland war against the Germans in the fall of 1944.

Luckily the Soviets and Germans didn't have Zeros, though I doubt Yaks and Messerschmidts would be much fun either! Says a helluva lot about the pilots. If I'm not mistaken, the only surviving Buffalo is on display in Finland.

In 1998 they found a B-239 in a Russian lake, it was identified as the Finnish BW-372 a Brewster B-239. It was damaged in a dogfight 25/7-1942, the pilot Lt Pekuri shot down 2 Hurricanes before his aircraft was damaged by cannonfire from a MiG-3 and he did an emegency landing in the lake. In 1998 the aircraft was
raised and transported to the USA. After learning about the aircrafts history the plans to renovate it as a
US aircraft from the battle of Midway was cancelled. It was restaurated as it was when it crashed, it carries Finnish markings and have the battle and fire damages it got during the battle it is exhibited in Naval Aviation Museum i Pensacola, Florida.
The aircraft preserved in Finland is a Humu. The Finnish State Aircraft Factory also began the development of a homebuilt version of the B-239, this with a captured M-63 engine (these were Soviet license-built versions of the Wright Cyclone) and plywood wings. This aircraft was known locally as the Humu. However, only one prototype was built.

They were also used reasonably successfully in SEA by the Commonwealth after modifications which entailed removal of the armour and replacement of the 0.50" guns with 0.303" to improve maneuverability. and of course tactics.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the P-39. The removal of the turbocharger handicapped altitude performance but the 20-30% increase in weight from prototype -> production really killed it off.

The P-39 was pretty good at low levels and loved by the Russians, even with the extra weight. Had it kept the turbocharger it would have made a very good fighter. The placement of the engine on the CG really helped maneuverability.