Leroy Grumman
Encyclopedia
Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman (4 January 1895 – 4 October 1982) was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot
, and industrialist. In 1929, he co-founded Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co. later to become Grumman Aerospace Corporation, now part of Northrop Grumman
.
, Grumman's forebears had Connecticut roots and owned a brewery. When he was a child, his father, George Tyson Grumman owned and operated a carriage shop and later worked for the post office. From an early age, "Red Mike" (a nickname he gained because of his red-blond hair) demonstrated an interest in aviation, and in his 20 June 1911 high school salutatory
address at Huntington High School
, Grumman predicted that "[t]he final perfection of the aeroplane will be one of the greatest triumphs that man has ever gained over nature."
Grumman went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering
from Cornell University
in 1916. He landed his first job in the engineering department of the New York Telephone Company
. After the United States entered World War I, Grumman enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve
in June 1917 as a machinist's mate, 2nd class, and was sent to Columbia University
for a course on "subchaser"
engines.
. A clerical error, however, had him report to a course in aircraft inspection for pilot trainees at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. Without revealing the error in classification, he entered primary flight training at Naval Air Station Miami
and successfully completed advanced flight training in Pensacola
, Florida in September 1918. Raymond P. Applegate, his flight instructor, recalled several years later that his young charge "was very, very reticent. Most of the guys, after they [learned to] fly, they became tougher than hell. Grumman didn't." He was commissioned an ensign (as naval aviator No. 1216), eventually becoming a flight instructor, and assigned to a bombing squadron.
After one tour of duty, the U.S. Navy sent him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study the brand new discipline of aeronautical engineering. After the completion of the course, Grumman's first posting, along with a promotion to lieutenant was as an acceptance test pilot
for Curtiss and Navy-built flying boats at the League Island Naval Yard
.
In 1919, the U.S. Navy stationed Grumman at Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation in New York City as the project engineer to supervise the firm's construction of 52 Loening M-8
monoplane observation/fighter aircraft under contract to the Navy. His duties included test flying as well as serving as the production supervisor. Grover Loening, the company president, was so impressed with his work that he offered Grumman a position. After a reduction in rank to ensign in the peacetime U.S. Navy, Grumman resigned his Naval commission in October 1920, becoming a test pilot flying various types of Loening amphibians while doing some design and development on these aircraft. He quickly moved up in the Loening organization, becoming the factory manager and then general manager with responsibility over aircraft design, a position he held until the company was sold in 1929 on the eve of the Depression
to Keystone Aircraft
. Keystone closed their Manhattan factory and moved operations to Bristol, Pennsylvania
. Unwilling to leave Long Island, Grumman joined fellow Loening employees, factory manager Leon "Jake" Swirbul
and assistant general manager William Schwendler, in resolving that their best option was to quit and form their own company.
On 2 January 1930, the company took possession of an abandoned auto showroom garage in Baldwin that had once been the Cox-Klemin Aircraft Co. factory. Initially, the new company, with only 18 people on salary, had contracts to repair damaged Loening amphibians (surplus parts had been bought from the Loening works) and traded on its expertise in working with aluminum by building aluminum floats and producing aluminum truck bodies. The first project of the new company involved Grumman and Swirbul, as president and vice-president, on hands and knees, sorting out and matching nuts and bolts, prior to assembling Loening floats.
Swirbul and Grumman oversaw the day-to-day operations of the company. While the employees in the plant felt comfortable calling the outgoing Swirbul "Jake," no one ever called Grumman anything but "Mr. Grumman" out of deference to his reserved manner and respect for his skill as an engineer and designer. Dick Hutton, Grumman engineer and later senior vice-president of Engineering described him as a "great engineer, respected by many..." To family and close friends, he was invariably known as "Roy".
Having been told of the U.S. Navy's desire for retractable landing gear, Leroy Grumman was awarded , Retractable Landing Gear for Airplanes in 1932, based on an earlier design that he had developed for the Loening Air Yacht. The innovative, manually operated landing gear which progressed from a heavy and unreliable design to a more sturdy version helped his company win contracts from the U.S. Navy. When the Grumman Company received its first U.S. Navy production contract for a two-seater biplane fighter, the FF-1, it featured Grumman's trademark "splayed out" landing gear. Grumman's ability as an engineer and designer was characterized by a Grumman Company engineer as that of "'a master of the educated hunch' who could foresee technical problems and their solutions." He invented the famous "Sto-Wing" wing folding system that revolutionized carrier aircraft storage and handling. He worked out the solution by sticking paper clips into a soap eraser to find the pivot point that made the Sto-Wing possible.
Although Grumman realized the importance of his close relationship with the U.S. Navy, by the mid-1930s, he began to design aircraft for the commercial market with the development of the G-21 "Goose"
amphibian and the G-22 "Gulfhawk"
, civil version of the Grumman F3F
carrier-based fighter.
in 1931, Farmingdale
in 1932, and finally Bethpage
in 1937. In 1934, a company legend grew up around the number "250" which marked the zenith for expansion in Grumman's mind. He reasoned that if there were more than 250 employees, "it's going to be too big and we're going to lose control of it. That's where we ought to stop." Company accountant Towl was eventually deputized to tell Grumman that the payroll was already at 256.
Although Grumman resisted the "expansionist" efforts that Swirbul advocated, employment grew from 700 in 1939 to 25,500 in 1943, with the company known as the "Grumman Iron Works" (a name derived from their product line's rugged structure and a design philosophy espoused by both Swirbul and Grumman) becoming the primary source for U.S. Navy aircraft.
During an unusually hectic period in the summer of 1944, Grumman sought a release from tension in a particularly unique manner. Seeking out company test pilot Selden "Connie" Converse, he asked for a check out in a "hot ship": the front line F6F Hellcat. After a 10-minute cockpit check, Grumman waved Converse away, started the engine and was soon taxiing down the runway and into the air on a half-hour joy ride. Even though he hadn't flown for years, like he had in the past, when things built up, he would "take his troubles upstairs and leave them there." The factory test pilots observed that Grumman had the flaps down as he taxiied back to the flight line, and insisted that he pay the standard $1.00 fine for a flight infraction. Grumman stuffed a five-dollar bill into the party fund container, confiding that it was to make up "for things he'd done in the air that they hadn't seen."
Beginning with the Wildcat and then with the F6F Hellcat fighters, Grumman and Swirbul remained the key figures in the design office. As the war progressed, the pair continued to advance new projects, including the largest single-engine aircraft of World War II, the TBF Avenger torpedo bomber and F7F Tigercat and Bearcat fighter aircraft.
Near the end of the war, Grumman was given a penicillin
injection to combat pneumonia
, resulting in a severe reaction that affected his eyesight. Although he was not entirely blind, his vision was greatly affected; Grumman began to "become less visible" in the company.
Swirbul realized his wartime expansion would have to be abandoned and together with Grumman made the momentous call for a complete layoff of all staff. However, Grumman personally retained as many veteran employees as possible, calling back the most proficient and experienced "hands", predominately those that had 10 years of service. Grumman stepped down from the role of president of the company in 1946, but continued to play an active role in management.
Building with the core group, Swirbul and Grumman restructured the company, first solidifying its long-term contacts with the U.S. Navy, beginning a continuous line of new combat aircraft. Grumman's first venture into jet aircraft, the F9F Panther
, became operational in 1949, although the company's most significant postwar successes came in the 1960s with the A-6 Intruder and in the 1970s with the F-14 Tomcat. Although the relationship that Grumman had established with the U.S. Navy was the hallmark of the company's success, a set of new projects were initiated with the development of an engineering department, set up in much the same way that he had started out, with a small core of eight engineers given the mandate to explore new technology.
With Swirbul's death on 28 June 1960, Grumman lost not only a close friend but his "right hand" during a time when he was faced with critical decisions as to the company's future. He successfully guided the company into finding new markets for new products. In the move to diversification, he again entered the commercial civil aviation market, introducing landmark designs such as the Ag Cat
aerial application and crop-dusting biplane and the Gulfstream I
, Gulfstream II
, Gulfstream III and Gulfstream IV
series of executive turboprop and jet transport. Although his role as chairman became reduced, Grumman's counsel was paramount and when the Gulfstream project was launched, two models of a high-wing and low-wing configuration were set up outside his office. Grumman personally made the decision to go with "the low wing".
While continuing the company tradition of aircraft production for naval aviation, Grumman pushed for a shift in priorities resulting in the Space Steering Group, a space program that culminated in the design and production of the Apollo program’s
Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) that landed astronauts on the moon in 1969. During that same year, the company was rebranded as Grumman Aerospace Corporation. Throughout this period, Grumman's eyesight continued to fail, and he "took to wearing dark glasses" which further limited his mobility.
, Long Island where, after a long illness, he died at the North Shore University Hospital in nearby Manhasset
on 4 October 1982, aged 87.
for aeronautics pioneering, and the NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering
(1968) from the National Academy of Sciences
.
In 1972, Grumman was inducted in the National Aviation Hall of Fame
. and the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame in 2002.
The USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO-195), a United States Navy
fleet replenishment oiler, christened by his three daughters was launched in 1988 and delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1989. In January of 2011 a Civil Air Patrol Squadron from Northport, Long Island, NY was renamed in his honor, the former Suffolk County Cadet Squadron VII now proudly calls itself the Leroy R. Grumman Cadet Squadron.
In 1953, Grumman was elected to the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Cornell University and donated $110,000 for a new squash
building which now bears his name, as does a lecture hall on the campus.
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
, and industrialist. In 1929, he co-founded Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co. later to become Grumman Aerospace Corporation, now part of Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2010, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over...
.
Early life
Born in Huntington, New YorkHuntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
, Grumman's forebears had Connecticut roots and owned a brewery. When he was a child, his father, George Tyson Grumman owned and operated a carriage shop and later worked for the post office. From an early age, "Red Mike" (a nickname he gained because of his red-blond hair) demonstrated an interest in aviation, and in his 20 June 1911 high school salutatory
Salutatorian
Salutatorian is an academic title given, in the United States and Canada, to the second highest graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is traditionally based on grade point average and number of credits taken, but...
address at Huntington High School
Huntington High School (New York)
Huntington High School is a four-year, public secondary school located in Huntington, New York. It functions as the high school for the Huntington Union Free School District, serving students in Huntington...
, Grumman predicted that "[t]he final perfection of the aeroplane will be one of the greatest triumphs that man has ever gained over nature."
Grumman went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1916. He landed his first job in the engineering department of the New York Telephone Company
New York Telephone
The New York Telephone Company was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company.-Predecessor companies:...
. After the United States entered World War I, Grumman enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in June 1917 as a machinist's mate, 2nd class, and was sent to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
for a course on "subchaser"
Submarine chaser
A submarine chaser is a small and fast naval vessel specially intended for anti-submarine warfare. Although similar vessels were designed and used by many nations, this designation was most famously used by ships built by the United States of America...
engines.
Aviation career
Although Grumman applied for flight training, he failed his medical evaluation when the examining board incorrectly diagnosed flat feetFlat feet
Flat feet is a formal reference to a medical condition in which the arch of the foot collapses, with the entire sole of the foot coming into complete or near-complete contact with the ground...
. A clerical error, however, had him report to a course in aircraft inspection for pilot trainees at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. Without revealing the error in classification, he entered primary flight training at Naval Air Station Miami
Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...
and successfully completed advanced flight training in Pensacola
Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...
, Florida in September 1918. Raymond P. Applegate, his flight instructor, recalled several years later that his young charge "was very, very reticent. Most of the guys, after they [learned to] fly, they became tougher than hell. Grumman didn't." He was commissioned an ensign (as naval aviator No. 1216), eventually becoming a flight instructor, and assigned to a bombing squadron.
After one tour of duty, the U.S. Navy sent him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study the brand new discipline of aeronautical engineering. After the completion of the course, Grumman's first posting, along with a promotion to lieutenant was as an acceptance test pilot
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
for Curtiss and Navy-built flying boats at the League Island Naval Yard
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995...
.
In 1919, the U.S. Navy stationed Grumman at Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation in New York City as the project engineer to supervise the firm's construction of 52 Loening M-8
Loening M-8
|-See also:...
monoplane observation/fighter aircraft under contract to the Navy. His duties included test flying as well as serving as the production supervisor. Grover Loening, the company president, was so impressed with his work that he offered Grumman a position. After a reduction in rank to ensign in the peacetime U.S. Navy, Grumman resigned his Naval commission in October 1920, becoming a test pilot flying various types of Loening amphibians while doing some design and development on these aircraft. He quickly moved up in the Loening organization, becoming the factory manager and then general manager with responsibility over aircraft design, a position he held until the company was sold in 1929 on the eve of the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
to Keystone Aircraft
Keystone Aircraft
Keystone Aircraft Corporation was an early pioneer in airplane manufacturing. Headquartered in Bristol, Pennsylvania, it was formed as Ogdensburg Aeroway Corp in 1920 by Thomas Huff and Elliot Daland, but its name was quickly changed to Huff-Daland Aero Corp, then to the Huff-Daland Aero Company...
. Keystone closed their Manhattan factory and moved operations to Bristol, Pennsylvania
Bristol, Pennsylvania
Bristol is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Philadelphia opposite Burlington, N.J. on the Delaware River. Bristol was first incorporated in 1720. Although its charter was revised in 1905, the original charter remains in effect, making Bristol one of the older boroughs in...
. Unwilling to leave Long Island, Grumman joined fellow Loening employees, factory manager Leon "Jake" Swirbul
Jake Swirbul
Leon A. "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul , was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation....
and assistant general manager William Schwendler, in resolving that their best option was to quit and form their own company.
Company founding
Grumman mortgaged his house for $16,950 and Swirbul's mother borrowed $6,000 from her employers to help set up Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co. The co-founders were soon joined by Ed Poor, Loening's business manager and E. Clinton Towl, who had recently come from Wall Street. These five men would form the company's inner circle of management for the next 50 years. Grover and his brother, Albert P. Loening, also became investors. The company was named after its largest stockholder and first president.On 2 January 1930, the company took possession of an abandoned auto showroom garage in Baldwin that had once been the Cox-Klemin Aircraft Co. factory. Initially, the new company, with only 18 people on salary, had contracts to repair damaged Loening amphibians (surplus parts had been bought from the Loening works) and traded on its expertise in working with aluminum by building aluminum floats and producing aluminum truck bodies. The first project of the new company involved Grumman and Swirbul, as president and vice-president, on hands and knees, sorting out and matching nuts and bolts, prior to assembling Loening floats.
Swirbul and Grumman oversaw the day-to-day operations of the company. While the employees in the plant felt comfortable calling the outgoing Swirbul "Jake," no one ever called Grumman anything but "Mr. Grumman" out of deference to his reserved manner and respect for his skill as an engineer and designer. Dick Hutton, Grumman engineer and later senior vice-president of Engineering described him as a "great engineer, respected by many..." To family and close friends, he was invariably known as "Roy".
Having been told of the U.S. Navy's desire for retractable landing gear, Leroy Grumman was awarded , Retractable Landing Gear for Airplanes in 1932, based on an earlier design that he had developed for the Loening Air Yacht. The innovative, manually operated landing gear which progressed from a heavy and unreliable design to a more sturdy version helped his company win contracts from the U.S. Navy. When the Grumman Company received its first U.S. Navy production contract for a two-seater biplane fighter, the FF-1, it featured Grumman's trademark "splayed out" landing gear. Grumman's ability as an engineer and designer was characterized by a Grumman Company engineer as that of "'a master of the educated hunch' who could foresee technical problems and their solutions." He invented the famous "Sto-Wing" wing folding system that revolutionized carrier aircraft storage and handling. He worked out the solution by sticking paper clips into a soap eraser to find the pivot point that made the Sto-Wing possible.
Although Grumman realized the importance of his close relationship with the U.S. Navy, by the mid-1930s, he began to design aircraft for the commercial market with the development of the G-21 "Goose"
Grumman Goose
The Grumman G-21 Goose amphibious aircraft was designed as an eight-seat "commuter" plane for businessmen in the Long Island area. The Goose was Grumman’s first monoplane to fly, its first twin-engined aircraft, and its first aircraft to enter commercial airline service...
amphibian and the G-22 "Gulfhawk"
Grumman F3F
|-Popular culture:The F3F was featured as an "experimental fighter" in Warner Bros's Wings of the Navy .The F3F-2 was featured in the 1940 film Flight Command, starring Robert Taylor as a pilot whose work developing instrument landing systems helps his lost squadron return to NAS North...
, civil version of the Grumman F3F
Grumman F3F
|-Popular culture:The F3F was featured as an "experimental fighter" in Warner Bros's Wings of the Navy .The F3F-2 was featured in the 1940 film Flight Command, starring Robert Taylor as a pilot whose work developing instrument landing systems helps his lost squadron return to NAS North...
carrier-based fighter.
Expansion
As the company expanded, it moved to bigger quarters – to Valley StreamValley Stream, New York
Valley Stream is a village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. The population in the village of Valley Stream was 37,511 at the 2010 census...
in 1931, Farmingdale
Farmingdale, New York
The Village of Farmingdale is an incorporated village on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York in the United States...
in 1932, and finally Bethpage
Bethpage, New York
Bethpage is a hamlet located on Long Island within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States, as well as a census-designated place with borders slightly different from those of the hamlet...
in 1937. In 1934, a company legend grew up around the number "250" which marked the zenith for expansion in Grumman's mind. He reasoned that if there were more than 250 employees, "it's going to be too big and we're going to lose control of it. That's where we ought to stop." Company accountant Towl was eventually deputized to tell Grumman that the payroll was already at 256.
Although Grumman resisted the "expansionist" efforts that Swirbul advocated, employment grew from 700 in 1939 to 25,500 in 1943, with the company known as the "Grumman Iron Works" (a name derived from their product line's rugged structure and a design philosophy espoused by both Swirbul and Grumman) becoming the primary source for U.S. Navy aircraft.
Management style
Despite his innate shyness, Grumman's management style included a "hands-on" approach where he could talk comfortably with both executives and factory floor workers. His relationship with Swirbul was unusual. They resolved early in their partnership to work out of one office; both men further pledged that any problems or conflicts that arose between them would not fester, and that neither man would leave the office until they came to an understanding.During an unusually hectic period in the summer of 1944, Grumman sought a release from tension in a particularly unique manner. Seeking out company test pilot Selden "Connie" Converse, he asked for a check out in a "hot ship": the front line F6F Hellcat. After a 10-minute cockpit check, Grumman waved Converse away, started the engine and was soon taxiing down the runway and into the air on a half-hour joy ride. Even though he hadn't flown for years, like he had in the past, when things built up, he would "take his troubles upstairs and leave them there." The factory test pilots observed that Grumman had the flaps down as he taxiied back to the flight line, and insisted that he pay the standard $1.00 fine for a flight infraction. Grumman stuffed a five-dollar bill into the party fund container, confiding that it was to make up "for things he'd done in the air that they hadn't seen."
World War II
By 1939, as World War II began, Grumman's struggling company could hardly be considered an industrial giant with all of its property relying on the services of a single security guard yet the company was obtaining important civil and military contracts. However, the next year saw dramatic changes in the company's fortunes as the war in Europe prompted France and Britain to order F4F Wildcats, Grumman's first monoplane fighter design, still bearing his original signature design element, the retractable undercarriage that had been created in 1932.Beginning with the Wildcat and then with the F6F Hellcat fighters, Grumman and Swirbul remained the key figures in the design office. As the war progressed, the pair continued to advance new projects, including the largest single-engine aircraft of World War II, the TBF Avenger torpedo bomber and F7F Tigercat and Bearcat fighter aircraft.
Near the end of the war, Grumman was given a penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
injection to combat pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, resulting in a severe reaction that affected his eyesight. Although he was not entirely blind, his vision was greatly affected; Grumman began to "become less visible" in the company.
Postwar
By March 1945, Grumman oversaw a production effort where all types reached a record 664 aircraft manufactured in one month, although Swirbul had "farmed out" production to a vast chain of subsidiary and licensed manufacturing plants. Like its competitors, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation experienced severe postwar downsizing, dropping from 20,500 to 5,400 employees immediately after the cessation of hostilities. It was an extremely hard decision because the company had been careful to cultivate a positive workplace culture; when a canvass was made of employees who wanted to "move on" at war's end, only 126 came forward.Swirbul realized his wartime expansion would have to be abandoned and together with Grumman made the momentous call for a complete layoff of all staff. However, Grumman personally retained as many veteran employees as possible, calling back the most proficient and experienced "hands", predominately those that had 10 years of service. Grumman stepped down from the role of president of the company in 1946, but continued to play an active role in management.
Building with the core group, Swirbul and Grumman restructured the company, first solidifying its long-term contacts with the U.S. Navy, beginning a continuous line of new combat aircraft. Grumman's first venture into jet aircraft, the F9F Panther
F9F Panther
|-Popular culture:The Panther played a prominent role in the 1954 movie Men of the Fighting Lady . The F9F was featured in the flying sequences in the 1954 movie The Bridges at Toko-Ri, although in the 1953 James A...
, became operational in 1949, although the company's most significant postwar successes came in the 1960s with the A-6 Intruder and in the 1970s with the F-14 Tomcat. Although the relationship that Grumman had established with the U.S. Navy was the hallmark of the company's success, a set of new projects were initiated with the development of an engineering department, set up in much the same way that he had started out, with a small core of eight engineers given the mandate to explore new technology.
With Swirbul's death on 28 June 1960, Grumman lost not only a close friend but his "right hand" during a time when he was faced with critical decisions as to the company's future. He successfully guided the company into finding new markets for new products. In the move to diversification, he again entered the commercial civil aviation market, introducing landmark designs such as the Ag Cat
Grumman Ag Cat
-See also:-References:* Michell, Simon. Jane's Civil and Military Aircraft Upgrades 1994-95. Coulsdon, UK:Jane's Information Group, 1994. ISBN 0 7106 1208 7.-External links:*...
aerial application and crop-dusting biplane and the Gulfstream I
Grumman Gulfstream I
|-See also:-External links:*...
, Gulfstream II
Grumman Gulfstream II
The Gulfstream II is an American twin engine business jet designed and built by Grumman and then in succession, Grumman American and finally Gulfstream American. Its Grumman model number is G-1159 and its US military designation is C-11 Gulfstream II. It has been succeeded by the Gulfstream III...
, Gulfstream III and Gulfstream IV
Gulfstream IV
The Gulfstream IV and derivatives are a family of twin-jet aircraft, mainly for private or business use. The aircraft was designed and built by Gulfstream Aerospace, a General Dynamics company based in Savannah, Georgia, United States from 1985 until 2003.-Design and development:Gulfstream, in...
series of executive turboprop and jet transport. Although his role as chairman became reduced, Grumman's counsel was paramount and when the Gulfstream project was launched, two models of a high-wing and low-wing configuration were set up outside his office. Grumman personally made the decision to go with "the low wing".
While continuing the company tradition of aircraft production for naval aviation, Grumman pushed for a shift in priorities resulting in the Space Steering Group, a space program that culminated in the design and production of the Apollo program’s
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) that landed astronauts on the moon in 1969. During that same year, the company was rebranded as Grumman Aerospace Corporation. Throughout this period, Grumman's eyesight continued to fail, and he "took to wearing dark glasses" which further limited his mobility.
Later life
On 19 May 1966, Grumman retired as chairman of Grumman, but was elected honorary chairman for his lifetime, remaining as a director until 15 June 1972. He continued to visit the company’s facilities until his health began to fail in the early 1980s, as diabetes robbed him of the last "vestiges of his eyesight." Grumman and his family retained their home in Plandome ManorPlandome Manor, New York
Plandome Manor is a village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. The population was 872 at the 2010 census.The Village of Plandome Manor is in the Town of North Hempstead. It is served by the Manhasset, New York school district.-History:...
, Long Island where, after a long illness, he died at the North Shore University Hospital in nearby Manhasset
Manhasset, New York
Manhasset is a hamlet and neighborhood in Nassau County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the population was 8,080....
on 4 October 1982, aged 87.
Honors and tributes
A number of honors have been bestowed on Grumman including the Medal for Merit from the U.S. President (1948), an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1950, the Daniel Guggenheim MedalDaniel Guggenheim Medal
The Daniel Guggenheim Medal is an American engineering award, established by Daniel and Harry Guggenheim. The medal is considered to be one of the greatest honors that can be presented for a lifetime of work in aeronautics...
for aeronautics pioneering, and the NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering
NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering
The NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for excellence in the field of aeronautical engineering." Established by Jerome C. Hunsaker and his wife, it was first awarded in 1968....
(1968) from the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
In 1972, Grumman was inducted in the National Aviation Hall of Fame
National Aviation Hall of Fame
The American National Aviation Hall of Fame is located at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, east Dayton, Ohio...
. and the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame in 2002.
The USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO-195), a United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
fleet replenishment oiler, christened by his three daughters was launched in 1988 and delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1989. In January of 2011 a Civil Air Patrol Squadron from Northport, Long Island, NY was renamed in his honor, the former Suffolk County Cadet Squadron VII now proudly calls itself the Leroy R. Grumman Cadet Squadron.
In 1953, Grumman was elected to the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Cornell University and donated $110,000 for a new squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
building which now bears his name, as does a lecture hall on the campus.