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Buffalo replica built for Holland

In July 2008, this replica of a Dutch Buffalo was handed over to Major General F. P. Schulte and author Gerard Casius at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island, New York. The replica was built for the Militaire Luchtvaart Museum (military aviation museum) in Soeterberg, Netherlands, and is probably the plane referred to below. The markings used on the Buffalo are of the aircraft flown by Sgt Pilot 'Tub' Bruggink.

Those Buffalo bits in Holland

Thanks to the alert reporting of Jos Heyman, Paul McMillan, and Roel here's an account of the Buffalo ghosts formerly in California. They were the property of Vintage Aircraft Company, located in Sonoma and owned by Christopher Prevost. Mr. Prevost evidently ownend the remains of three Brewster Buffalos, probably B-339-23 models built for the Dutch colonial air force in the Indies (now Indonesia) but diverted to Australia in early 1942. Two of them bore the (RAAF?) serials B3-174 and B3-178. The third was USAAF 304, operated by the U.S. Army until it crashed into the side of Mount Stanley. All three aircraft were recovered from Australia by Graham Orphan, publisher of Classic Wings Downunder.

The early reports said that one of the Buffs had been acquired by the Militaire Luchtvaart Museum in Soesterberg, Netherlands. Roel Lucassen provided this translation of an interview in the magazine Luchtvaart: "The new museum director reveals a new addition to the collection: a Brewster Buffalo, the fighter aircraft that was in use with the KNIL (the Dutch East Indies): 'We are currently going through the final stages with the American owner of the Brewster Buffalo. This example is one that was for use with the KNIL but due to the breaking out of WW2 couldn't be delivered.' Along with the Fokker C.X replica that wil be constructed in the near future, it will be a nice addition to the collection.""

Probably what happened here was the aircraft turned out to be impossible to restore, or the museum never intended to restore it, and that instead it commissioned a replica that was completed and delivered in July 2008, as shown above. Meanwhile, some bits and pieces of the California Brewsters were also acquired for Dutch museum display:

Buffalo fuel gauges Here are Brewster Buffalo fuel gauges, among the bits & pieces recently acquired by the Dutch aviation museum NLTP Aviodrome in Lelystad, Holland. (kindness of Bas Kreuger)

Kindness of Jos Heyman, here's a translation of a posting on a Dutch message board: "The Aviodrome [museum] has indeed purchased parts of three Brewster Buffaloes, viz:

  • B3-174 Buffalo B-339D ex NEI-Army c/n 375 parts only
  • B3-178 Buffalo B-339D ex NEI-Army c/n 379 parts only
  • '304' Buffalo B-339D ex [USAAF Australia] c/n ??? parts only
    The Aviodrome has plans to build a Buffalo B-339D fuselage. It is intended to fix the parts to this replica fuselage. It is not known when this is going to happen."

    The NLTP Aviodrome in Lelystad is evidently an entirely separate institution from the Militaire Luchtvaart Museum in Soesterberg, so there seem to be two replicas in play.

    The planes that went to Australia were originally bound for the Netherlands East Indies and the Dutch colonial air force. In his Squadron-Signal book about the Buffalo, Jim Maas identifies them as model B-339-23--essentially, an F2A-3 with a refurbished Wright R-1820-G5 airline engine. Altogether, twenty-one Buffaloes were diverted to Australia, including twenty B-339-23s and one of the earlier B-339Ds, identical to those that had been lost in the Indies. A few were flown by the USAAF and the rest by the RAAF. See Buffaloes Among the Kangaroos on this website.

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