Incorporated 1929 at Farmingdale, New York. Contractor
to U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. Built FF-1
FF, SF
(first flown 1931)
and SF-1 two-seat biplane fighters with retractable landing
gear, followed by single-seat F2F (first flown October
1933) and F3F (delivered 1936), plus all-metal amphibian
as the JF-1 (first flown May 1933), later known as
F2F
the
Duck. Subsequent production, mainly for the U.S. Navy
and Marine Corps, included F4F Wildcat fighter (first Grumman
monoplane, first flown September 1937), TBM
Avenger torpedo-bomber (first flown August 1941), F6F
Hellcat fighter (delivered from 1943), F7F Tigercat
F4F "Wildcat"
twin-engined carrier fighter-bomber (first flown December 1943)
and F8F Bearcat fighter (first flown August 1944) during
Second World War, plus Widgeon and Goose (delivered
from 1939) amphibians. Postwar aircraft included the antisubmarine
Guardian (first flown December 1945),
F6F "Hellcat"
Albatross
amphibian (first flown October 1947), F9F Panther
as its first jet fighter (first flown November 1947), and
F11F Tiger day jet fighter (first flown July 1954 in original
F9F-9 form).
Grumman's entry into specialized electronic warfare
aircraft began
F8F "Bearcat"
in December 1952 with the first flight of its
S2F Tracker (later S-2), though this was a carrierborne
antisubmarine aircraft. From Tracker were developed variants
for carrier transport operations; the C-1 Trader and,
more importantly, the WF
F9F "Panther"
(later E-1) for airborne early-warning,
with an over-fuselage radome (first flown March
1957) and based on the S-2A. Such was the success of
the E-1 concept that the much improved E-2 Hawkeye
was developed, which first flew
F11F "Tiger"
in October 1960 (originally
as W2F-1) and remains in production in 1999 by
Northrop Grumman, itself leading to the C-2 Greyhound
transport derivative (first flown November 1964).
Grumman also developed the OV-1 Mohawk for the U.S.
Army for
S-2 "Tracker"
observation, first flown April 1959 and also using
the successful twin-turboprop engine layout.
In April 1960 Grumman flew the A2F-1, which in production
form became the A-6 Intruder twin-jet carrierborne
long-range and low-level strike aircraft, finally withdrawn
A-6 "Intruder"
from service in the late 1990s. Intruder itself spawned an
electronic warfare variant, the EA-6 Prowler, first flown
May 1968 and still in service in 1999. The final fighter to
carry the Grumman name was the
E-2 "Hawkeye"
F-14 Tomcat, designed
as a carrier based variable-geometry long-range type
armed with super-long-range Phoenix air-to-air missiles
(first flown December 1970, entering service with the U.S.
Navy from 1972 and exported to Iran for land-based operations
from 1976). By
