Brewster entered aircraft work by producing seaplane floats and wing panels, much of it for Grumman, before Dayton Brown helped it compete as a designer in its own right. An earlier mid-wing dive bomber with retractable landing gear and an enclosed bomb bay offered another promising design path. Had the Navy selected it, the resulting production demand might have exposed the Queens factory's limitations while expansion money and time were still available. The Buffalo's later failure arose from an industrial organization unable to build and develop its creative designs at scale.
Notable Point · 48:08-49:35
Brewster's early work did not prepare it for mass production
Float and wing-panel subcontracting led to ambitious naval aircraft designs, but an unselected dive bomber also meant Brewster missed an early chance to confront its factory limitations.