Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation

Template:Infobox Defunct Company The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman with Jake Swirbul and William Schwendler, its independent existence ended in 1994 when it was acquired by Northrop Corporation to form Northrop Grumman.

History

Early history

Leroy Grumman and others worked for the Loening Aircraft Engineering Corporation in the 1920s, but when it was bought by Keystone Aircraft Corporation and the operations moved from New York City to Pennsylvania, Grumman and his partners (Edmund Ward Poor, William Schwendler, Jake Swirbul, and Clint Towl) started their own company in an old Cox-Klemin Aircraft Co. factory in Baldwin on Long Island, NY.

The company filed as a business on 5 December 1929, and opened its doors 2 January 1930. Keeping busy by welding aluminum tubing for truck frames, the company eagerly pursued contracts with the US Navy. Grumman designed the first practical floats with a retractable landing gear for the Navy, and this launched Grumman into the aviation market. The first Grumman aircraft was also for the Navy, the Grumman FF-1, a biplane with retractable landing gear. This was followed by a number of other successful designs.

World War II Navy Contracts

During World War II, Grumman became famous for its Navy fighter aircraft, F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat, and for its torpedo bomber TBF Avenger. Grumman's first jet plane, the F9F Panther, became operational in 1949, but the company's big postwar successes came in the 1960s with the A-6 Intruder and in the 1970s with the F-14 Tomcat.

Apollo Lunar Module

Grumman was also the chief contractor on the Apollo Lunar Module that landed men on the moon. They received the contract on 7 November, 1962, and ultimately built 13 lunar modules (LMs). As the Apollo program neared its end, Grumman was one of the chief competitors for the contract to design and build the Space Shuttle, but lost to Rockwell International.

Meanwhile, in 1969, the company changed its name to Grumman Aerospace Corporation, and in 1978 it sold the Grumman-American Division to Gulfstream Aerospace. Grumman built the Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV), a light transport mail truck designed for and used by the United States Postal Service. The LLV entered service in 1986.

Long Island Employer

File:Grumman Park.jpg

F-14 Tomcat on static display pedestal at Grumman Memorial Park, Calverton, New York

For much of the Cold War period Grumman was the largest single corporate employer on Long Island. Grumman's products were considered so reliable and ruggedly built that the company was often referred to as the "Grumman Iron Works."

As the company grew, it moved to Valley Stream, New York, then Farmingdale, New York, finally ending up at Bethpage, New York, with the testing and final assembly at the Template:Convert Naval Weapons Station in Calverton, New York, all located on Long Island as well. At its peak in 1986 it employed 23,000 people on Long Island and occupied Template:Convert in structures on Template:Convert it leased from the U.S. Navy in Bethpage.

File:Grumman Historical Marker.jpg

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The end of the Cold War at the beginning of the 1990s and the ensuing reduced need for defense spending led to a wave of mergers as aerospace companies shrank; in 1994 Northrop bought Grumman for $2.1 billion to form Northrop Grumman, after Northrop topped a $1.9 billion offer from Martin Marietta.

The new company closed almost all of its facilities on Long Island with the Bethpage plant being converted to a residential and office complex (with its headquarters at 1111 Stewart Avenue becoming the corporate headquarters for Cablevision) and the Calverton plant being turned into an airport that is being developed by Riverhead (town), New York. A portion of the airport property has been used for the Grumman Memorial Park. The company still occupies several buildings within the Bethpage campus and employs approximately 2,000 people.

Grumman aircraft by type and relative date

An F-14A Tomcat of VF-84 Jolly Rogers, in the old color scheme from the beginning of its service.

An A-6E Intruder flying over Spain during Exercise Matador.

File:Grumman TBF Avenger.jpg

TBF Avenger

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E-2C Hawkeye

File:Lunar Module diagram.jpg

Apollo Spacecraft: Apollo Lunar Module Diagram.

File:Grumman Firecat B-1.jpg

1988 Grumman Firecat, Santiago de Chile FD, 2004

• The Cats
  • F4F Wildcat
  • F6F Hellcat
  • F7F Tigercat
  • F8F Bearcat
  • F9F Panther
  • F9F/F-9 Cougar
  • XF10F Jaguar
  • F11F/F-11 Tiger
  • F-14 Tomcat
• Fighter aircraft
  • Grumman FF
  • Grumman F2F
  • Grumman F3F
  • XF5F Skyrocket
  • Grumman XP-50
• Attack
  • AF Guardian
  • A-6 Intruder
• Bomber
  • TBF Avenger
• Amphibious
  • JF Duck
  • J2F Duck
  • G-21 Goose some modified as Super or Turbo Goose
  • G-44 Widgeon
  • HU-16 Albatross (Coast Guard UF-1/UF-2, Navy U-16, Civilian G-111)
  • G-73 Mallard
• Other
  • C-1 Trader
  • E-1 Tracer
  • S-2 Tracker
  • E-2 Hawkeye
  • C-2 Greyhound
  • OV-1 Mohawk
  • EA-6B Prowler
  • Grumman X-29A
• Space
  • Apollo Lunar Module
• Civilian
  • Grumman Gulfstream I
  • Grumman Gulfstream II
  • Grumman American AA-1 (1971-76)
  • Grumman American AA-1B Trainer (1971-76)
  • Grumman American AA-5 Traveler (1972-75)
  • Grumman American AA-5A Cheetah (1976-79)
  • Grumman American AA-5B Tiger (1975-79)
  • G-164 Ag Cat
• Other
  • Grumman Olson used to build aluminum truck bodies, known as a stepvan. Grumman also manufactured fire engines under the name Firecat for a time.

External links

• International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 11. St. James Press, 1995 (via fundinguniverse.com)
• Grumman profile on Aerofiles.com
• Grumman Memorial Park History Center
• WW2DB: Grumman Aircraft of WW2
• Grumman at Wikimapia
• 1994 Aerial Photograph of Bethpage Headquarters, including intact runways
• Grumman Firecat on Multimedia Gallery

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation".