The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, which then took the name of Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was during the 20th century one of the companies producing the most military and civilian aircraft. Founded in 1929 by Leroy Grumman, it merged at the end of the 20th century with Northrop to form the Northrop Grumman group.
In the 1920s, Leroy Grumman worked for the Loening Aircraft Engineering Corporation. When it was purchased by Keystone Aircraft and business moved from New York to Pennsylvania, Leroy Grumman and his colleagues (Edmund Ward Poor, William Schwendler, Jake Swirbull and Clint Towl) started their own company in a garage in the town of Baldwin on Long Island.
The company was legally declared on December 5, 1929 and opened on January 2, 1930. Their first products were floats for US Navy seaplanes. The first plane they produced was also designed for the Navy:it was the Grumman FF-1, a biplane with a retractable landing gear. Other models succeeded him with as much success. As the company grew, it moved to Valley Stream, then to Farmingdale and finally, it settled in Bethpage.
During World War II, Grumman became famous for its fighters:the F4F Wildcat, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and for its torpedo bomber, the TBF Avenger. Grumman's first jet aircraft was the F9F Panther which became operational in 1949, but its biggest post-war success was the Grumman A-6 Intruder in the 1960s and finally, in the 1970s, the F- 14 Tomcat.
Grumman was also the project manager of the lunar module of the Apollo project which allowed the first men to go to the Moon. They received the contract on November 7, 1962 and eventually built 13 lunar modules. As the Apollo program drew to a close, Grumman was one of the contenders for the contract to build the space shuttle, but it was Rockwell who received the contract.
In 1969 the company took the name Grumman Aerospace Corporation and in 1978 it sold the Grumman-American division to the Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. The end of the Cold War around 1991 and its consequences on national defense needs led to a wave of mergers. In 1994, Grumman merged with Northrop to become Northrop Grumman.
Aircraft produced by Grumman, by type and relative date
* Fighters
Grumman FF-1
Grumman F2F
Grumman F3F
Grumman F4F Wildcat
Grumman XF5F-1
Grumman F6F Hellcat
Grumman F7F Tigercat
Grumman F8F Bearcat
Grumman F9F Panther
Grumman F9F Cougar
Grumman F10F Jaguar
Grumman F11F Tiger
Grumman F-14 Tomcat
* Ground attack aircraft
Grumman AF-2 Guardian
Grumman A-6 Intruder
* Bombers
o Grumman TBF Avenger
* Amphibious Aircraft
Grumman JF Duck
Grumman G-21 Goose
Grumman G-44 Widgeon
Grumman Grumman Albatross (or U-16 in the Navy)
Grumman G-73 Mallard
* Others
Grumman C-1 Trader
Grumman S-2 Tracker
Grumman E-2 Hawkeye
Grumman C-2 Greyhound
Grumman OV-1 Mohawk
Grumman X-29A
* Space
Lunar Module (LEM) of the Apollo program