Finnish Forces

VL Humu

VL Humu, the Finnish copy of Brewster Buffalo. At the beginning of Continuation War the Finnish Airforce only had 44 Brewsters and the request for building licence had been denied in May 1940, so a series of 90 copies was planned to be build. The order was cancelled because it was clearly becoming weaker aircraft than the B-239 and Soviets were bringing better planes to the Finnish front. Only this one prototype of VL Humu was complited. It only flew 19 hours and 50 minutes and never saw action. Today the VL Humu has been fully restored and is displayed in the Aviation Museum of Central Finland. Specifications: Crew: One Length: 8.03 m (26 ft 4 in) Wingspan: 10.67 m (35 ft 0 in) Height: 3.66 m (12 ft 0 in) Wing area: 19.40 m² (208.8 ft²) Max takeoff weight: 2,895 kg (6,380 lbs) Powerplant: 1× Shvetsov M-63 9-cyl., 746 kW (1,000 hp) Maximum speed: 430 km/h (267 mi/h) Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,250 ft) Rate of climb: 13.3 m/s (43.6 ft/s) Armament: 2× 12,7 mm LKK/42 machine guns