The Buffalo's landing-gear struts were a genuine weakness because carrier arrivals imposed loads beyond ordinary land-based operations. Reinforcing them offered a practical engineering response. The Royal Navy later added metal reinforcement to navalized Spitfires for similar deck loads, with some success. That comparison suggests a way to address the Buffalo's undercarriage weakness while leaving its larger production and development problems unresolved.
Notable Point · 10:33-11:18
Carrier landings exposed a fixable undercarriage weakness
The Buffalo's wheel struts needed reinforcement for hard deck landings, a practical navalization problem rather than proof that the whole fighter concept was unsound.