Brewster Aeronautical Corp. - Corsairs-Photo

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

I live in Pennsylvania and once heard there was a Brewster plant in Pa. Anyone know more about this? If so that would be pretty cool since my state during WWII did not see a lot of aviation related things. At lest not to my knowledge. Except Piper and the Naval Aircraft Factory.

Hi Nathan.... Brewster had a plant at Johnsville, PA, near Warminster. They built F3A's there, and also SB2A's as well. The plant was taken over by the Naval Aircraft Factory towards the very end of the company's existence. Apparently, when the Naval Air Station shut down there a few years ago, you could see the original Brewster Factory logo on the factory wall after the Navy removed theirs. Does anyone have a photo of this? I have heard that it's all scheduled to be torn down (may already be so). I know when I googled the location I could see some demolition going on in the airfield perimeter... kinda sad really...


Cheers,
Richard

The F3A were produced on Long Island. They had stopped production by the time the Johnsville plant opened.

[Nathan]

Wow! Thank you very much guys for the additional information and a great education. I had no idea Pennsylvania was that envolved during the war. At lest not that much.

A while back I did plan on writting an article for Ghost Wings about Pennsylvania's aviation efforts during WWII. I might just have to start doing it.

Today I sure feel proud to live in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania!

Cheers,
Nathan

[Nathan]

Hey cool, look what I found.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/i ... 2&ei=UTF-8

Can anyone make out what aircraft are at Johnsville?

[phil65]

Don't forget the Kecksburg UFO

[DonL]

The runway and the hangars on the east side of Jacksonville road are gone. They are now a retirement facility. The office and the other buildings on the west side of Jacksonville road have been turned over to other forms of industry. As stated earlier the Brewster name over the office was visible for awhile but has since been plastered over. Pass by every day on my way to work. Great shots, thanks for showing them.

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Midvale Steel use to forge steel parts for the Navy at the Hunting Park plant along with Dodge Castings on State Rd in the Tacony section of Phila.

[needle]

In the above photo, all the aircraft (both US and UK paint schemes) seem to have the same length wing.

At what point in time were the aircraft supplied to the Fleet Air Arm with the shorter wing then the US version, and did Brewster ever produce the Corsair with the shorter wing, or was that limited to CV and Goodyear?

Julian

[RMAllnutt]

In the above photo, all the aircraft (both US and UK paint schemes) seem to have the same length wing.

At what point in time were the aircraft supplied to the Fleet Air Arm with the shorter wing then the US version, and did Brewster ever produce the Corsair with the shorter wing, or was that limited to CV and Goodyear?

Julian

Actually, the photograph does show the shorter wing length for the British corsairs. The difference was only in the deletion, and fairing over of the wingtips. I forget the actual change in length, but you can see that the wingtips for the British wings are flat, and the US ones are rounded.

Cheers,
Richard

[RMAllnutt]

I live in Pennsylvania and once heard there was a Brewster plant in Pa. Anyone know more about this? If so that would be pretty cool since my state during WWII did not see a lot of aviation related things. At lest not to my knowledge. Except Piper and the Naval Aircraft Factory.

Hi Nathan.... Brewster had a plant at Johnsville, PA, near Warminster. They built F3A's there, and also SB2A's as well. The plant was taken over by the Naval Aircraft Factory towards the very end of the company's existence. Apparently, when the Naval Air Station shut down there a few years ago, you could see the original Brewster Factory logo on the factory wall after the Navy removed theirs. Does anyone have a photo of this? I have heard that it's all scheduled to be torn down (may already be so). I know when I googled the location I could see some demolition going on in the airfield perimeter... kinda sad really...


Cheers,
Richard

The F3A were produced on Long Island. They had stopped production by the time the Johnsville plant opened.

I didn't realize this... I knew that they did test flying from Johnsville on the F3A, as I have photos of Ralph flying them there. Sadly, Ralph died in 2005. You wouldn't happen to have any ability to contact his family, would you?

All the best,
Richard

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

I'm sorry to hear of Ralph's passing. I have no contact with the family. I was suprised to read his name as I haven't heard it since
my mother passed 30 years ago.

[merlin101]

I believe the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum's Corsair has one Brewster tailplane on one side (horizontal stab...) although it's a Goodyear built aircraft. IIRC, the theory could be that Brewster parts were passed onto Goodyear after production at Brewster was shut down.

Your'e correct on this. When taking off its blue paint, the camoflage colours were discovered still underneath! More information & photos are in the book 'Corsair KD431,The time capsule Fighter' by Dave Morris. Do you have anymore with FAA Corsairs?
Dave

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

The parts were definitely passed on to Goodyear.

[Rob Mears]

Man, I really love the two-tone British camouflage. I'd love to the The Fighter Collection go that direction with their FG-1D when the time comes to repaint her. Absolutely unique and very attractive!