America’s Failed Answer to the Zero: How the Brewster Buffalo Became the “Ensign Eliminator. In 1943, young U.S. Navy pilots were dying in training aircraft meant to prepare them for war. At the center of the crisis was the Brewster F2A Buffalo—America’s first monoplane carrier fighter. This documentary examines how the U.S. Navy attempted to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero and instead fielded an aircraft that proved deadly to its own pilots. Drawing on official reports, combat records,