I found this web page that has a Brewster Buffalo that was flown by a Lt Pekuri of Finland. There are some good pictures. Also they have a Russian Tupolev TU-2 for sale.

If any of you want to start a partnership to buy the planes, I can put in .0001%, and moral support! http://www.historicair.com/aircraft/sale/buffalo.htm

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I need a bailout of only $500,000

The man who flew the plane:




In June 1942, the Brewster was assigned to Lieutenant Lauri Pekuri. At 82 and a retired colonel, he gave this account on Finnish television: "We were engaged in combat next to the Russian airfield.... My wingman was Sergeant Anttila, a young fellow in his first fight. When I gave the order to disengage, Anttila couldn't comply. I looked and saw a Russian aircraft--it was a British-made Hurricane--behind him, firing from a somewhat long distance and scoring hits. Black smoke started to pour out of Anttila's aircraft, his engine stopped and he began to glide down. I managed to shoot down the Russian fighter and thus prevented him from completing the damage he had done.

"After this I disengaged from the fight. I flew on the deck at full power for 40-50 km.... I was awakened by bullets hitting my aircraft-- they made quite a racket--and my left wing tank caught fire. The Russian, I believe it was a Hurricane, overtook me at high speed just a few meters higher, and suddenly I found him right in front of me, practically filling my whole gunsight. Instinctively, I pulled the trigger, and the Russian aircraft caught fire and crashed into the woods." (After looking at the battle damage shown in photographs of BW-372, Colonel Pekuri decided that some had been inflicted by explosive shells and that his attacker was actually a MiG-3 fighter.)

His Brewster on fire and its Wright Cyclone barely ticking over, Pekuri made a wheels-up landing on the water. The plane flipped over, he said, but righted itself sufficiently that it sank nose-down into the lake. (It was on its belly when Villiard's team found it.) The young lieutenant evaded capture and made his way back to Finnish lines. Overall, Pekuri was credited with 10.5 Russian aircraft on Brewsters, making him the ninth-ranking Buffalo ace in Finland--and the world, of course. He later flew a Messerschmitt Bf-109, accumulating an additional 8 kills before he was shot down and captured in June 1944. He was released from prison camp at the end of the year, after Finland signed its second armistice with Russia, and in time became the first Finn to fly faster than Mach 1.0. He died in 1999, too soon to learn the fate of BW-372.

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Thanks for the extra information! I just knew when I saw the pictures you would have more information on the pilot or the plane or both. I wish he was still alive to see his old plane come back to life. It is in really good condition for being shot down and in a lake for 60 years!

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I need a bailout of only $500,000

Yeah,

I bet Mr Pekuri would have been thrilled to see his old plane! As well the plane looks very good for its age, and I think it´s the only Brewster in the world left of its kind so probably worth gold its weight...??

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Some more Brewster info for those interested:

History: Recognizing in 1936 that the day of the biplane flying off carrier decks was ending, the US Navy sent a proposal to manufacturers specifying a monoplane configuration, wing flaps, arrester gear, retractable landing flaps and an enclosed cockpit. Brewster’s design, the F2A, featured all-metal construction except for fabric control surfaces, a Wright Cyclone piston engine (allowing the plane to exceed 300 mph), four fixed machine guns and attachments for two 100 pound bombs. In June 1939 the first of 54 F2A-1 production planes was delivered, the first nine sent to equip VF-3 aboard USS Saratoga.

By late 1940 the Navy was receiving the F2A-2, an improved version with a more powerful engine, better propeller and built-in flotation gear. Unfortunately the plane was overweight and unstable, especially compared to the Japanese Zero, and would soon be replaced by the Grumman Wildcat.

About 200 land-based versions were bought by the British, who called it the Brewster Buffalo; they were sent to the Far East in an attempt to free up Spitfires and Hurricanes in Europe. Used in the defense of Burma and Singapore, the Buffalo was overmatched by the Japanese and eventually withdrawn from service. In fact, the only successful combat enjoyed in the Far East was the 100 Buffaloes of the Netherlands East Indies Army fitted with a larger (1,200 hp) Wright engine. Only by maintaining a high altitude and diving suddenly out of the sun were the Dutch able to defeat the Zero in Java and Malaya.

A significant user of the Buffalo was the Finnish Air Force. Though unloved by the British, Australians, Americans, Belgians and Kiwis, 44 Buffaloes were flown by the Finnish LLv24 Squadron, and the aircraft was beloved and found to be very effective in the hands of its Finnish pilots. No fewer than 12 pilots became aces in Buffaloes, and the aircraft is remembered fondly by many.

A Finnish variant of the F2A, the VL (Valtion Lentokonetehdas) Humu was intended as a replacement for the Finnish Air Force's worn-out F2A-1 Buffalo fighters, which could not be replaced due to poor wartime availability of imported combat aircraft. The most significant changes from the original F2A-1 were a wooden wing (necessary due to material shortages) and a Russian M-63 engine purchased from Germany. The project soon fell behind schedule and the Humu proved to be inferior to the F2A-1 due to a higher aircraft weight, among other factors . Only one aircraft was delivered, and it never entered Finnish service. [History by Jeff VanDerford with significant contributions by P. Kojo and Sampo Vuorinen.]

Nicknames: Beer Barrel (RAF nickname); Flying Barrel; Suicide Barrel; Peanut Special; Pylly-Waltteri (Finland); Taivaan Helmi ("Sky Pearl" in Finnish).

Specifications (F2A-3):
Engine: One 1,200-hp Wright R-1820-40 Cyclone radial piston engine.
Weight: Empty 4,723 lbs., Max Takeoff 7,159 lbs.
Wing Span: 35ft. 0in.
Length: 26ft. 4in.
Height: 12ft. 1in.
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 321 mph
Cruising Speed: 258 mph
Ceiling: 33,200 ft.
Range: 965 miles
Armament: Four forward-firing 12.7-mm (0.5-inch) machine guns, plus two 100-pound bombs.

Number Built: ~420

Number Still Airworthy: None, but at least one is rumored to be under restoration for flight.

http://www.warbirdalley.com/buffalo.htm

And the Lauri Pekuri story of the situation with the Brewster mentioned earlier:

Lt. Lauri Pekuri was over the Rukajärvi line on the 25th of June 1942 chasing a Soviet bomber with a four-ship of Brewsters. They didn't catch the bomber.

At the same time Ilmari Juutilainen was returning with his four-ship from a recce flight and had gotten into a fight close to the Segeza airfield. Juutilainen radioed to Pekuri' group that "there are enough targets for everyone".

When Pekuri's four-ship arrived on the scene at 5.000 m altitude the air combat was already on the way. "I gave orders for our other two-ship to attack the enemy aircraft below us, but I stayed as top cover with my wingman Sgt. Anttila".

When Juutilainen informed that he tried to disengage from the fight Pekuri noticed at least five Huricanes above him. Pekuri and Anttila, who was for the first time in real air combat, tied the enemy Hurricanes into combat and Juutilainen's group succeeded to disengage.


"There was no point in staying in the fight with only two aircraft so I told Anttila to disengage. I rolled my aircraft into dive and when I looked back I saw Anttila diving with a Hurricane behind him".

Pekuri succeeded in forcing the Hurricane off Anttila's tail. But his Brewster was hit; black smoke came from the engine. Now there was another enemy fighter behind Anttila. "I got behind its tail and shot a short burst. I got close and shot another short burst. The pilot didn't even try to pull the aircraft from the dive or parachute. He must have been dead since the aircraft rolled inverted into a dive. I saw Anttila glide to a forced landing".

Pekuri disengaged successfully from the pursuing Hurricanes and flew low just over the treetops "towards west with full throttle". He flew some forty kilometers and already got relaxed. "Only Anttila's destiny worried".


"There was a lonely wolf"
"I thought that I was alert and I flew shallow turns to check my six, but there must have been a lonely wolf".

The fuselage started to take hits and flames came out of the engine bay, the wing tank caught fire and the engine stopped. "The attacker broke to the same direction and couldn't hold his speed after a shot from such a close range. Suddenly his plane was in front of me and the fuselage filled my gunsights. I pulled the trigger immediately. His plane destroyed totally in a blink of an eye".

Pekuri was too low to escape with parachute. He opened the canopy and decided to try to crash land the aircraft into the lake ahead. The speed was too high for the aircraft speeding only ten meters over the water. The flames from the fuel tank reached the cockpit area. Landing in the woods would have meant instant death.

Pekuri forced the nose down and when the Brewster hit the water it turned immediately upside down. When Pekuri got back to to surface he burned his eyelashes and eyebrows. The fuel was burning on the surface around the aircraft.

"I dived back and saw the borders of the continuously expanding burning area. I got water in my lungs. I didn't want to get drowned below burning water".

When Pekuri got back to surface the burning flames approached. "The twenty meters that I had to swim with the parachute were the hardest moments in my life".

It was still two hundred meters to the shore. Pekuri managed to get rid of his parachute and kicked off his flying boots. The rest he swam on his back. "I woke up when my head hit the rocks".

http://hkkk.fi/~yrjola/war/faf/brewster.html

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