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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 Bristol, 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,
New York. All of the early Grumman employees were former Loening
employees. The company was named for Grumman because he was its
largest investor. The company filed as a business on the 5th
of December 1929, and opened its doors on the 2nd of 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. |
