The 1938 competition produced a 54-aircraft Navy contract, but Brewster's delivery sequence amounted to one aircraft in May, a second in July, and a third in October. By December the total had reached just eleven. That was too few to equip VF-3 aboard USS Saratoga as the intended first monoplane fighter squadron. Other multi-floor plants avoided this bottleneck by using several lifts or moving complete aircraft jigs between levels. Brewster's decisive early failure was industrial throughput after a design victory.
Notable Point · 16:45-18:22
Eleven deliveries could not equip Saratoga's VF-3
Brewster won a 54-aircraft order but delivered too slowly to form the Navy's intended first monoplane fighter squadron aboard Saratoga.