Brewster Aeronautical Corporation The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation was a North American defense contractor that operated from the 1930s until the end of World War II . It started existence as an aircraft division of Brewster & Co . , a company that originally sold carriage s and had branched into automobile bodies and airplane parts . In 1932 , James Work , an aeronautical engineer , bought the division for US $ 30 , 000 and created the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation . Brewster started out making seaplane floats and wing panels , but with the hire of chief engineer Dayton Brown it embarked on its own designs . It operated three aircraft plants , at the Brewster Building in Long Island City , New York , Newark , New Jersey , and , in 1941 , in Warminster Township , Pennsylvania , which was then known as NAS Johnsville . Brown ' s first design , in 1934 , was a two - seat scout - bomber , the Brewster SBA , which first flew in 1936 ; subsequently the Naval Aircraft Factory built them , with the designation " SBN - 1 " . The SB2A Buccaneer was a follow - on design that first flew in 1941 and was also used by the Royal Air Force , who named it Bermuda . A design in 1936 for a carrier - capable monoplane resulted in the Brewster F2A ( named Buffalo by the British ) , which was chosen over an early version of the F4F Wildcat . The F2A prototype handled well in 1938 tests , and the Navy ordered 54 . However , production was slow , at least partly due to an inefficient factory in Queens , New York . The Navy ended up ordering Wildcats , which by 1938 had been greatly improved . The Buffalo was exported to Finland starting in 1939 , and more were intended for Belgium , but the country was overrun in the early stages of World War II , before deliveries could begin . The United Kingdom also received Buffalos , which eventually ended up in the Far East . They engaged in combat with Japanese Zeros and suffered badly . The Buffalos were most popular with the Finnish Air Force , which used them successfully against the Soviet air force , and began a program to build an indigenous version named Humu . The Dutch also purchased 92 Buffalos and assigned most to the " Militaire Luchtvaart KNIL " in the Dutch East Indies ( now Indonesia ) where they fought against the Japanese . Several captured by the Japanese were repainted with Japanese " Hinomaru " insignia and extensively tested . During WWII it became apparent that Brewster was mismanaged . The company had grown from a relatively minor aircraft parts supplier to a fully - fledged defense giant in only a few years . Brewster ranked 84th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts . Jimmy Work had hired Alfred and Ignacio Miranda as the company salesmen . They had been involved in frauds , spending two years in prison for selling illicit arms to Bolivia , and had over - promised Brewster production capabilities to customers . As WWII had swelled the defense industries , the quality of the newly hired work force was inferior in skills and often motivation , and the work was plagued by illicit strikes ; even outright sabotage was suspected . The Navy installed George Chapline as president of the company , easing out Jimmy Work , in the hopes of speeding up production , but then in early 1942 Jimmy Work regained control , just in time to be sued for $ 10 million for financial misdeeds . On April 18 , 1942 the Navy simply seized Brewster and put the head of the Naval Aircraft Factory , G . C . Westervelt , in charge . In mid - May a new board of directors was appointed by the Navy , with Brewster making the F3A - 1 Corsair under licence . When the Navy cancelled Brewster ' s last contract , for assembly of the Corsair , on July 1 , 1944 , the company was in serious trouble . In October , after reporting a large loss , the management decided to shut down the company , and on April 5 , 1946 , the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation was dissolved by its shareholders .