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Brewsters to the Finnish Air Force in 1940
Test pilot Robert A. Winston in a US Navy Hellcat
To Finland
Robert A. Winston had just retired after serving on three US Navy carriers and as an air combat instructor at NAS Pensacola, FL. As an idle 32 year old bachelor in Indiana he noticed a small piece of news in the local newspaper: "US Navy has released Brewster fighters to be sold to Finland". Winston contacted his old squadron mate Wood Burke, who was now the chief test pilot of the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation. After a while he got a cable back from Burke: "The Finnish Brewsters will be sent via Sweden. Are you available immediately?"
The 44 F2A-1 series Brewsters bought by the Finnish Government had the 950 hp export version of the Wright Cyclone R-1820-G5 engine. The aircraft were packed into containers and they were shipped to Stavanger, Norway and from there by rail to Sweden. The final assembly was done at the Saab factory in Trollhättan.
Winston traveled to the Brewster factory at Long Island, NY and met the general manager Dayton T. Brown. On the next day he went to Roosevelt field with Burke to fly the Brewster. The new version had a 1000 hp Wright Cyclone engine and Finnish texts in the cockpit. The speed was in kilometers per hour and the altitude in meters. It had two .50 cal guns in the wings and one in the fuselage, where there also was a .30 cal gun for close range work. Best climb was at 130 kts, approach 80 kts and touchdown 72 kts.
Winston flew to Floyd Bennett field at 5.000 ft and took the gear and flaps down and did some stalls. He did half a dozen touch and go landings at Floyd Bennett and then flew back across the Long Island to Roosevelt field. There the engine suddenly died on him and he had to make a crosswind landing on the wrong runway. The reason for the malfunction was that he had used the left wing tank, but had forgotten to switch to the right tank.
The US Brewster team left for Sweden on the S.S. Bergensfjord on the 8th of February 1940. In the mean time Jorma Karhunen got orders to report to Finnish Air Force HQ on the 10th of February when he landed his Fokker D.XXI, FR-87 to the remote Littoinen "ice" base. He traveled to Stockholm Bromma airfield with MSgt. Virta on the Aero "Kaleva" DC-2 the next day. From Stockholm they traveled by rail to Trollhättan.
The American Brewster team arrived at Stockholm on the 19th of February and traveled to Trollhättan on the same day. Before their departure to Trollhättan they visited the Finnish embassy at Stockholm to hear the latest information. USDAO at Helsinki, USAAF Capt. Robert Losey told them that a Finnish ace, Jorma Karhunen, had belly-landed one of the Brewsters recently. The Finns had gotten restless immediately after the first aircraft had been assembled and they had sent two of their aces to fly the new fighters. The pilots were good shooters but they had only some 400 flight hours. The crazy Finns liked to fly low and fast and probably the engine burnt and there was no time to take the gear down.
Finnish Brewsters being assembled at the Saab factory in Trollhättan
Test flights at Trollhättan
The representative of the Finnish Government, Mr. Kurt Berger met the Brewster reps at Trollhättan on the 20th of February and told that Sweden had let the Finns use the Saab hangars to assemble the Brewsters. Also Swedish mechanics were helping in the assembly. 11 Norwegian volunteers arrived at Trollhättan to speed up the pruduction. Sweden's largest aircraft factory was at Trollhättan doing the license manufacture of German Junkers bombers and US Hamilton Standard propellers. When the Americans were a bit puzzled by the situation Mr. Berger told them: "No need to worry, the Swedish pilots in German aircraft with US propellers will make the Soviets think twice before attacking this Finnish base in Sweden with their American (lend-lease) bombers."
The manager of the Saab aircraft factory was count Sparré, the nephew of the Finnish CINC, general Mannerheim. Finland was receiving at the same time also Italian Fiats that were assembled in Göteborg. One of them was at Trollhättan on the 20th.
Mr. Berger asked if Robert Winston could test fly the next Brewster from the assembly line on the same day even though there was a lot of snow on the airfield. Mr. Berger told Winston that several inexperienced Finnish pilots would arrive at Trollhättan on the same week and they would start to fly the aircraft to Finland as they came out from the assembly line. Therefore it would be important that the aircraft would be thoroughly tested before the ferry flights to Finland.
BW-362 at Trollhättan
Two Swedish mechanics were turning the inertial starter as the engine was primed. The engine started on the first try. Robert Winston climbed to the cockpit for the first test flight on the 20th of February 1940 at Trollhättan. He taxied in the deep snow and managed to get to the other end of the runway. "If this is typical for winter operations I'll already take my hat off for the Finns", he thought. The aircraft almost nosed over during the takeoff run, but Winston managed to get it airborne. He climbed to 1.000 m (3.300 ft) and checked the instruments. He continued to climb to 2.000 m (7.000 ft). He checked the field during the climbing turn and couldn't see it! Everywhere he looked he could see just snow. The whole damn scenery looked the same. Winston hadn't taken a map so he was in trouble. He knew the airfield was to the north of Trollhättan, but he could see at least half a dozen suitable towns from his altitude. He started to circle one of the towns and noticed a peculiar question mark shaped track on the field and realized that it was his taxi track. Now he knew where he was and he went on with the standard US Navy post-maintenance test flight procedures from NAS Pensacola.
Go to Brewsters to Finland, page 2
Article combined and translated from:
Suomen Siivet 4/1970: Mauno A. Salo "The Brewster story 1"
Suomen Siivet 1/1971: Mauno A. Salo "The Brewster story 2"
Finnish Air Force History 1: Brewster B-239, Kalevi Keskinen, 1970
Aces Wild, Robert A. Winston, 1941
Taistelulentäjän muistelmat, Joppe Karhunen, 1998
Finnish Air Force Brewster BW-393 (Capt. Hasse Wind's aircraft)
Links to pages tracking the Finnish Air Force Brewster BW-372 :
Track the Brewster story at:
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