SB2A Buccaneer
Click the thumbnails to enlarge them
Bermuda FF775 1944
Bermuda FF775 and SBD at NAS New Orleans
Bermuda FF841 and FF840
Bermuda with RAF and American national insignias
Brewster Bermuda FF842 and FF840
Brewster Bermuda I
British Brewster Bermuda in flight
British Brewster Bermuda Mk I
Buccaneer BuNo 1632 without aft cockpit
Buccaneer with 100lb bombs
Buccaneers V-S-30, V-S-22 and V-S-15
Buccaneers V-S-4 and V-S-27, Florida 1942-43
ex-Dutch NX390B, September 1943
Overall light grey Buccaneer at Newark airport
Prototype with turret midway between wings and tail
SB2A in flight
SB2A RCAF
SB2A releasing bombs 1942
SB2A-2 front view 1942/43
SB2A-2 V-S-7, color photo
SB2A-3 BuNo 00884
SB2A-3 in flight 1942
SB2A-4 1943
SB2A-4 29263 of the VRS-1, New York
SB2A-4 V-S-8 at Vero Beach VSB Operational Training Unit 1943
U.S. pilot climbing into cockpit
Buccaneer was a single-engined mid-wing monoplane scout bomber aircraft built for the RAF and United States Navy between 1942 and 1944. It was also used by USAAF and UMSC. U.S. Navy had issued a requirement for a more effective scout-bomber with greater armament and an increased bomb load in early 1939, and Brewster responded with its Model 340. Ordered by the Navy in April of that year, the prototype XSB2A-1 flew in June 1941. By then Brewster had received a contract to build 140 for the Navy, as well as export orders from the Netherlands (162) and from the RAF (750). Although well armed, the SB2A was heavy and underpowered. Nevertheless, the Navy received an additional 80 SB2A-2s and 60 SB2A-3s in 1943-44, the latter intended for carrier operations with an arrestor hook and folding wings. The 162 ordered by the Netherlands were also taken over by the Navy, and these were issued as SB2A-4 to the Marine Corps. A total of 771 Buccaneers were eventually built, and these were used for target-towing and other secondline duties. Mid-wing all-metal monoplane fitted with a 1,700 hp Wright R-2600-8 Cyclone which drives a three-bladed Curtiss Electric fully-reversible, constant-speed propeller.