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19-825: Two prototypes were ordered in 1926 and tested by the Navy Trial Board before the first production batches were ordered. In 1927, a total of 291 O2Us were produced. The O2U-2 , -3 and -4 were ordered in 1928 with minor changes. By 1930 they were being superseded by the O3U which was basically similar to the O2U-4 , one variant of which was fitted with the Grumman float , and were manufactured until 1936. A total of 289 were built. Many of them had cowled engines and some had enclosed cockpits . The 600-690 hp (448-515 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1690-42 Hornet engine

38-506: A business on December 6, 1929, and officially opened on January 2, 1930. While maintaining the business 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,

57-537: A wave of mergers as aerospace companies shrank in number; in 1994 Northrop bought Grumman for $ 2.1 billion to form Northrop Grumman , after Northrop topped a $ 1.9 billion offer from Martin Marietta . The new company closed almost all of its facilities on Long Island and converted the Bethpage plant to a residential and office complex, with its headquarters becoming the corporate headquarters for Cablevision and

76-862: The Battle of Ko Chang against the French Navy . The most famous "combat" operation of this aircraft was shooting the original King Kong off of the Empire State Building . The name "Corsair" was used several times by Vought's planes; the O2U, Vought SBU Corsair in 1933, F4U in 1938, and the A-7 Corsair II in 1963. Data from The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft General characteristics Performance Armament Grumman The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation , later Grumman Aerospace Corporation ,

95-710: The Central Plains War and in the January 28 Incident against Japanese targets, while the O3U versions first participated in the Battle of Pingxingguan to support the Chinese ground forces, and later against the Japanese targets in Shanghai . Peru purchased two Vought OSUs which were designated UO-1A. Later, in 1929, 12 O2U-1 were acquired. Used first as trainers, they saw action against APRA rebels in

114-721: The Grumman FF-1 , a biplane with retractable landing gear developed at Curtiss Field in 1931. This was followed by a number of other successful designs. During World War II , Grumman became known for its "Cats" (Navy fighter aircraft ): the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat , the Grumman F7F Tigercat and Grumman F8F Bearcat , and also for its torpedo bomber , the Grumman TBF Avenger . Grumman ranked 22nd among United States corporations in

133-576: The 400 hp (300 kW) Wasp engine to quell a military coup; Mexico then built 31 more units under licence, and called them Corsarios Azcárate O2U-4A . In 1937, Mexico purchased 10 V-99M equipped with the Pratt & Whitney R-1340-T1H-1 550 hp Wasp engine, some of them may have been sent to Spain . China purchased the 42 export versions of O2U-1 from 1929 to 1933, and 21 export versions of O3U between 1933 and 1934 and they saw extensive bombing actions. The O2U-1 versions participated in

152-680: The Gulfstream I was operated by several regional airlines in scheduled passenger services. The Gulfstream I-C (Grumman model G-159C) version was "stretched" to carry 37 passengers. In the early 1970s, Grumman acquired majority interest in the American Aviation line of very light aircraft -- relabeling its planes as "Grumman-American" or "Grumman American" -- eventually joining it with their Gulfstream division before selling off that combined enterprise in 1978. In 1978, Grumman sold Gulfstream to American Jet Industries , which adopted

171-594: The Gulfstream name. Since 1999, Gulfstream has been a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics . For much of the Cold War period, Grumman was the largest 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 to its facility in Bethpage, New York , with

190-744: The Intruder in 1990. The U.S. Navy still employs the Hawkeye as part of Carrier Air Wings on board aircraft carriers, while the U.S. Marine Corps, the last branch of service to fly the Prowler, retired it on March 8, 2019. Grumman was the chief contractor on the Apollo Lunar Module , the first spacecraft to land humans on the Moon. The firm received the contract on November 7, 1962, and built 13 lunar modules. Six of them successfully landed on

209-596: The Moon, with one serving as a lifeboat on Apollo 13 , after an explosion crippled the main Apollo spacecraft. LM-2, a test article which never flew in space, is displayed permanently in the Smithsonian Institution . As the Apollo program neared its end, Grumman was one of the main competitors for the contract to design and build the Space Shuttle , but lost to Rockwell International . In 1969,

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228-750: The US entered World War II. Export versions included the Corsair V-65F , V-66F and V-80F for the Argentine Navy, the V-80P for the Peruvian Air Force, and the V-85G for Germany . China purchased Corsair variants V-65C and V-92C . Brazil purchased 36 aircraft V-65B , some hydroplanes V-66B and 15 V-65F . In March 1929, Mexico purchased 12 armed aircraft O2U-2M versions with

247-639: The company changed its name to Grumman Aerospace Corporation , and in 1978 it sold the Grumman-American Division to Gulfstream Aerospace . That same year, it acquired the bus manufacturer Flxible . The company built the Grumman LLV (Long Life Vehicle), a light transport mail truck designed for and used by the United States Postal Service . The LLV was produced from 1987 until 1994. Its intended service life

266-655: The northern areas of the country, and against Colombian ships and aircraft during the Colombia-Peru War . None were lost due to enemy fire, but several were destroyed due to accidents. These aircraft were also used for light bombing and casualty evacuation by the US Marine Corps during the intervention in Nicaragua in the late 1920s. Thailand used their Corsairs in the Franco-Thai War and in

285-489: The testing and final assembly at the 6,000-acre (24 km ) Naval Weapons Station in Calverton, New York , all located on Long Island. At its peak in 1986 it employed 23,000 people on Long Island and occupied 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m ) in structures on 105 acres (0.42 km ) it leased from the U.S. Navy in Bethpage. The end of the Cold War at the beginning of the 1990s reduced defense spending and led to

304-735: The value of wartime production contracts. Grumman's first jet aircraft was the F9F Panther ; it was followed by the upgraded F9F/F-9 Cougar , and the F-11 Tiger in the 1950s. The company's big postwar successes came in the 1960s with the A-6 Intruder and E-2 Hawkeye and in the 1970s with the Grumman EA-6B Prowler and F-14 Tomcat . Grumman products were prominent in several feature movies including The Final Countdown in 1980, Top Gun in 1986, and Flight of

323-629: Was 24 years, but some of them were still in service in 2020. In 1983, Grumman sold Flxible for $ 40 million to General Automotive Corporation of Ann Arbor. In the 1950s, Grumman began production of Gulfstream business aircraft, starting with the Gulfstream I turboprop (Grumman model G-159) and the Gulfstream II jet (Grumman model G-1159). Gulfstream aircraft were operated by many companies, private individuals, and government agencies including various military entities and NASA . In addition,

342-927: Was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft . Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 with Northrop Corporation to form Northrop Grumman . Leroy Grumman worked for the Loening Aircraft Engineering Corporation beginning in 1920. In 1929, Keystone Aircraft Corporation bought Loening Aircraft and moved its operations from New York City to Bristol, Pennsylvania . Grumman and three other ex-Loening Aircraft employees, ( Edmund Ward Poor , William Schwendler, and Jake Swirbul ) started their own company in an old Cox-Klemin Aircraft Co. factory in Baldwin on Long Island , New York. The company registered as

361-521: Was used to power Corsairs designated SU-1 to SU-4 . The change in designation reflected their role as scouts (their larger engines and heavier weight precluded their use as floatplanes, and USN examples were only used on wheels from either carrier decks or land bases). A total of 289 SU designated aircraft were built for the USN. No fewer than 141 Corsairs were still serving with the US Navy and Marines when

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