Brewster "Bison" Phoenix Re-build

[Stargazer]

If only I had done that way-back-when!! 'Course, I wouldn't have had the fun I had making the Super-Buffalo with Balinese (since I just came back from Bali) links.

Looks great!! Did you use my profile of the Brewster Bison as an inspiration for your project? Couldn't find a single mention of it in this thread but it seems like too much of a coincidence that you ended up with the same name for such a similar aircraft!

[sequoiaranger]

Stargazer2006 said: >Did you use my profile of the Brewster Bison as an inspiration for your project? Couldn't find a single mention of it in this thread but it seems like too much of a coincidence that you ended up with the same name for such a similar aircraft!<

Uh, no, actually. I don't think I've ever seen your Bison profile. My original "Bison" was done and named way back in 1985 or so. The name, of course, is the genus name for the Buffalo animal family and would be a "natural" for a Buffalo derivative. The modifications (both old and new) were entirely out of my own head, but it's not too much of a stretch for anyone admiring the Buffalo to come up with something similar.

Please provide me a link to your "Bison" profile. I would very much like to see it!

C-harps, Taiid, and S-Gazer: Thanks

[Stargazer]

Wow. Here is the Brewster Bison I imagined in 2009. Two versions: the BFA-1 for U.S. Navy and teh BW-341 for France. And here's the story that went with it:

The Brewster Model 41 Bison was acquired by the US Navy in 1941 an effort to revive the Bomber-Fighter class that had produced Boeing and Curtiss aircraft a few years before. It was, in essence, a stretched Buffalo with a bomb bay installed underneath. The Bison proved obsolescent almost immediately after delivery, and the 40 examples built were to be transfered to the Philippines Air Force as of June 1942, but sadly were lost at sea when a Japanese torpedo destroyed the boat that was carrying them sometime late in May. The fuselage of this example shows the logo of Boris the Bison, the mascot of the sole BFA-1 squadron.



In a further twist to the Bison story, the French Aéronavale also was interested in the Bison, and placed an order for 30 aircraft. These were of course canceled when the Vichy government took over, and that was the end of it.

[sequoiaranger]

re: Stargazer's profiles:

I like them! That's one GINORMOUS vertical stabilizer you have there! Like a direct transplant from a Buccaneer! Looks like you added a bit of overall length, but your cowl is still pretty close to the leading edge of the main wing (in comparison to my Bison).

I think if I were going to do a "clean sheet of paper" Bison concept re-make, I would add the Helldiver cowl and move the cockpit forward as I did, but add maybe two feet of fuselage length IN THE MIDDLE (keeping the leading edge of the wing the same), and "raise" the vertical stabilizer a scale foot or so (notice the longer "trim tab" relative to the other Photoshopped Bison in reply#46) but keep the same shape. It wouldn't have the wing-tip extensions, nor the "pointy" vertical stab of my Balinese Bison. It would look like my "new" Photoshopped Bison below:


It might need some slightly-oversized horizontal tailplanes, too. Hmmm. Maybe I'll just stick with the Balinese version!

[jimmaas]

Re the French Brewster, you might be interested in knowing there was a French Brewster planned.  It was, however, not a fighter but a dive-bomber based on the Buffalo.  The Model 240 spec sheet (sorry, no drawings) described a two-place (pilot and rear gunner, with a flexible .30 calibre gun) with a 35 foot wingspan (same as the F2A), 26 foot 9 inch length (9 inches longer thsan the F2A-2, almost certainly aft of the pilot's position).  The aircraft was planned to carry a 500 pound bomb, like the earlier XSBA/SBN and the larger Brewster SB2A, so I would assume that implies an enclosed bomb-bay.  The aircraft would have been for the Armee de l'Air, not the Aeronavale.

[Stargazer]

Re the French Brewster, you might be interested in knowing there was a French Brewster planned.  It was, however, not a fighter but a dive-bomber based on the Buffalo.  The Model 240 spec sheet (sorry, no drawings) described a two-place (pilot and rear gunner, with a flexible .30 calibre gun) with a 35 foot wingspan (same as the F2A), 26 foot 9 inch length (9 inches longer thsan the F2A-2, almost certainly aft of the pilot's position).  The aircraft was planned to carry a 500 pound bomb, like the earlier XSBA/SBN and the larger Brewster SB2A, so I would assume that implies an enclosed bomb-bay.  The aircraft would have been for the Armee de l'Air, not the Aeronavale.

Wow! I like it when reality comes close to fiction. Thanks for sharing and welcome to this site!

[sequoiaranger]

Thank you, "jimmaas", and welcome to a group whose minds are warped more than the Wright Flyer's wings!

Seems that an extra 500 pounds of bomb and 200+(?) pounds worth of second crewmember and machine gun would REALLY tax the poor Brewster without some sort of wing or engine improvements!! *MAYBE* my "Bison" could have handled it, but there are probably French pilots alive today that would not have been, had such an aircraft as you describe been used in war!!

[Brian da Basher]

The camo is beyond cool and I've got to admire you for coming up with such a great concept! This Bison is a winner all the way!

[sequoiaranger]

Thanks, Brian. The idea for the camo came to me on a "glamour-shot" photo session with me in the bathtub. 

Say, check out:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,32359.msg500831.html#msg500831

There are some spats there that need admiring! 

Good to see you "back"!

[Pablo1965]

I had lost this thread, but I see Sequoianranger fell about some planes something similar like me.
This plane is nice and cool and he always find very interresting schemes. I make something similar in 1/48 scale:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[dumaniac]

nice build - and while I didn't cotton onto the dot camouflage at first, the images over varied landscape look quite effective - I just can't see the camo design breaking the "traditional" mould

very interesting and wiffy

[royabulgaf]

Could you flip it over?  I don't quite get the landing gear geometry.

[sequoiaranger]

>Could you flip it over?  I don't quite get the landing gear geometry.<

Pablo's or mine?

My "Bison" has the identical setup of the original Buffalo; the wheels end up tucked up in a wheel well inside the fuselage. When the gear is retracted, it looks like an F4F Wildcat setup, but the Wildcat's gear is completely contained in the fuselage, whereas the Buffalo/Bison has the extra strut support coming down from the wing root. I can't speak for Pablo's creation.

Pablo--one WICKED-looking airplane you have there!

Dumaniac--Thanks. "breaking tradition" is like "breaking wind"---sometimes it stinks! 

[royabulgaf]

Pablo's please.

[Pablo1965]

Pablo's please.

See in...http://www.fantasyplanes.com/2010_01_01_archive.html  
This thread belong to Sequoiaranger and I don't want disturb.
His Bison is really great and originally different.