Grumman
5 types · 1 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Leroy Grumman worked for the Loening Aircraft Engineering Corporation beginning in 1920. The company registered as a business on December 6, 1929, and officially opened on January 2, 1930. The first Grumman aircraft was also for the Navy, the Grumman FF-1, a biplane with retractable landing gear developed at Curtiss Field in 1931. In the 1950s, Grumman began production of Gulfstream business aircraft, starting with the Gulfstream I turboprop (Grumman model G-159) and the Gulfstream II jet (Grumman model G-1159). Grumman canoes were developed in 1944 as World War II was winding down.
Aircraft Types
Grumman F5F Skyrocket
The Grumman F5F Skyrocket, flown as the XF5F-1, was a twin-engined, single-seat carrier fighter prototype built for the United States Navy. Ordered as a single prototype in June 1938 and first flown on 1 April 1940, it paired two Wright Cyclone radials with a fuselage so short that the wing's leading edge stood ahead of the nose. Its climb impressed the pilots who tested it against contemporary fighters in 1941, but newer single-engined monoplanes had outclassed it before testing finished, and it never entered production. The prototype flew on as a test aircraft until December 1944, and its trials informed the F7F Tigercat.
Grumman F6F Hellcat
The Grumman F6F Hellcat was the United States Navy's principal carrier fighter of the Second World War. Designed by Grumman as a larger, far more powerful successor to the F4F Wildcat and put into production before testing was complete, it entered combat in 1943 and took air superiority in the Pacific from the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. American and British Hellcats were credited with 5,203 Japanese and 13 German aircraft destroyed for 270 of their own lost in air combat. Grumman built 12,275 by November 1945; after the war the type served on in training, reserve, night-fighter and drone roles, and survivors are preserved in museums, with a few still flying.
Grumman FF Fifi
The Grumman FF "Fifi" was a two-seat biplane carrier fighter of the early 1930s and Grumman's first complete aircraft. The record spans the FF-1 fighter, the SF-1 scout and the FF-2 trainer conversion built by Grumman, plus the 52 licence-built Canadian Car & Foundry G-23s exported as the Spanish GE-23 Delfín and flown by Canada as the Goblin Mk.I. The FF was the first carrier aircraft with retractable landing gear, served with the U.S. Navy from 1933, fought in the Spanish Civil War and guarded Canada's east coast in 1940–42. The sole survivor, a Nicaraguan G-23 restored as an FF-1, is displayed at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.
Grumman G-21 Goose
The Grumman G-21 Goose is a twin-engined amphibious flying boat first flown in 1937, designed as an "air yacht" for wealthy Long Island commuters. It was Grumman's first monoplane, its first twin-engined aircraft and its first type to enter airline service. In the Second World War it served the armed forces of eleven nations, and afterward it built a long second career with small airlines in Alaska, the Caribbean and California.
Grumman TBF Avenger
The Grumman TBF Avenger was the U.S. Navy's standard carrier-based torpedo bomber of the Second World War, designed to replace the outclassed Douglas Devastator and first flown in 1941. It fought from the Battle of Midway onward, most of the more than 9,830 built were produced by General Motors' Eastern Aircraft Division as the TBM, and after the war it served other navies and flew as a firefighting aircraft; survivors are preserved in museums and still flown today.