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For other uses, see Grumman (disambiguation).
Grumman Corporation
Fate Merged with Northrop
Successor Northrop Grumman
Founded 1929
Defunct 1994
Headquarters Bethpage, New York
Industry Aircraft; Aircraft Parts and Equipment; Data Processing and Preparation; Search and Navigation Equipment; Truck and Bus Bodies; Electrical Equipment and Supplies
Products F4F Wildcat; F6F Hellcat; TBF Avenger; A-6 Intruder; F-14 Tomcat; Apollo Lunar Module
Employees 23,000 (1986)
Subsidiaries Grumman Aerospace Corp.; Grumman Allied Industries, Inc.; Grumman Data Systems Corp.

The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading 20th century U.S. producer of military and civilian aircraft. 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.

Contents

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 location

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 6,000-acre (24 km2) 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 Island1 and occupied 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) in structures on 105 acres (0.42 km2) it leased from the U.S. Navy in Bethpage.2

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,2 after Northrop topped a $1.9 billion offer from Martin Marietta.3

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.

Products

Aircraft

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.
TBF Avenger
E-2C Hawkeye
Apollo Spacecraft: Apollo Lunar Module Diagram.
United States Postal Service Grumman LLV
1988 Grumman Firecat, Santiago de Chile FD, 2004

Other

  • Grumman Olson built aluminum truck bodies, known as a stepvan. Under the Grumman-Olson brand it made the P-600 and P-6800 step vans for UPS. Grumman also manufactured fire engines under the name Firecat for a time.
  • Grumman made durable aluminum canoes.citation needed

References

  1. ^ "Long Islanders Shocked by Grumman's Merger", New York Times, March 8, 1994.
  2. ^ a b "Commercial Property/Selling Off Northrop Grumman's Surplus; Cablevision Takes Last of the Grumman Buildings", New York Times, December 28, 1997.
  3. ^ Northrop Bests Martin Marietta to Buy Grumman", New York Times, April 5, 1994.

External links

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