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 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. and also for its
torpedo bomber, the
Grumman TBF Avenger. Grumman ranked 22nd among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. Production of the majority of the Wildcats and Avenger was subcontracted to a purposely established division of General Motors : the
Eastern Aircraft Division. 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 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 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, 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 Long Life Vehicle (LLV), a light transport mail truck designed for and used by the
United States Postal Service. The LLV was produced between 1986 until 1994, intended for a service life of 24 years, later being extended to 30 years. A large portion of LLVs are still in operation with the United States Postal Service. 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, 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 the Gulfstream name. Since 1999, Gulfstream has been a wholly owned subsidiary of
General Dynamics. == Long Island locations ==