Leroy Randle Grumman was born in Huntington, New York, in 1895. From an early age, Grumman demonstrated an interest in aviation, and in his commencement address as salutatorian of his high school, he predicted “the final perfection of the aeroplane will be one of the greatest triumphs that man has ever gained over nature.”
Grumman earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 1916. His first job was in the engineering department of the New York Telephone Company. During World War I, Grumman enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in June 1917.
Though he applied for flight training, Grumman failed a medical evaluation because he was incorrectly diagnosed with flat fleet. Without revealing the error in classification, Grumman entered primary flight training at Naval Air Station Miami, and successfully completed advanced flight training in Pensacola, Florida, in September 1918. He eventually became a flight instructor and was assigned to a bombing squadron.
After a tour of duty, the Navy sent Grumman to MIT to study aeronautical engineering. After completing the course, he was assigned to the League Island Naval yard as an acceptance test pilot for Curtiss- and Navy-built flight boats.
In 1919, the Navy stationed Grumman at Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation in New York City as the project engineer to supervise construction of 52 M-8 monoplane observation/fighter aircraft under a Navy contract. Grumman’s duties included test flying as well as serving as production supervisor. Grover Loening was impressed by Grumman’s work and offered Grumman a job. In 1920, Grumman resigned his Naval commission to become a test pilot flying Loening amphibians while doing design and development work on the aircraft. He was promoted to general manager with responsibility over aircraft design, but the company was sold in 1929 to Keystone Aircraft, which moved operations to Bristol, Pennsylvania.
Grumman was unwilling to leave Long Island. With fellow Loening employees Jake Swirbul and William Schwendler, he decided to quit and form his own company. The three men formed Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co.
The company took possession of an abandoned auto showroom garage in Baldwin, New York. Initially, the new company had contracts to repair damaged Loening amphibians.
Having learned of the U.S. Navy’s desire for retractable landing gear, Grumman earned U.S. Patent No. 1,859,624 in 1932. The manually operated mechanism reduced drag which allowed the planes to increase air speeds. Contracts from the U.S. Navy followed.
Grumman’s ability as an engineer and a designer was characterized by a fellow engineer as that of “a master of the educated hunch who could foresee technical problems and their solutions.” Grumman invented the famous “Sto-Wing” wing-panel folding system, which revolutionized carrier aircraft storage. The Sto-Wing system saved wingspan space aboard aircraft carriers by folding the wings when a plane was not in use.
The company moved from Baldwin to Valley Stream in 1931, then Farmingdale in 1932, and Bethpage in 1937. In 1934, the company had expanded to greater than 250 employees. By 1939 the company had 700 employees. By 1943, Grumman’s company was employing 25,500 workers.
During an unusually hectic time in the summer of 1944, Grumman released tension by taking a joy ride in one of his F6F Hellcats, even though he hadn’t flown for years. Afterwards, the factory test pilots saw that Grumman had the flaps down as he taxied back to the flight line, and insisted that he pay the $1 fine for a flight infraction. Grumman stuffed a five dollar bill into the box, stating that the additional money was to make up for “things he’d done in the air that they hadn’t seen.”
Near the end of the war, Grumman was given a penicillin injection to combat pneumonia, resulting in a severe reaction that affected his eyesight. Though not entirely blind, Grumman’s vision was greatly affected.
Like competitors, Grumman’s company experienced severe postwar downsizing, dropping by about 80% to 5400 employees immediately after the cessation of hostilities. Grumman retained as many veteran employees as possible. He stopped down from the role of company president in 1946.
Swirbul and Grumman restructured the company, solidifying its Navy contracts beginning with a continuous line of new combat aircraft. 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. After Swirbul died in 1960, Grumman successfully guided the company into new markets for new products. He entered the commercial civil aviation market, introducing landmark designs such as the Ag Cat crop-dusting biplane and the Gulfstream I, II, III, and IV series of turboprop and jet transport aircraft.
Grumman also pushed for a shift in priorities, resulting in the Space Steering Group, a program that culminated in the design and production of the Apollo program’s Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) that landed the astronauts on the room in 1969. The company was also rebranded as Grumman Aerospace Corporation in 1969.
Grumman’s eyesight continued to fail, and he took to wearing dark glasses. In 1966, he retired as chairman, but was elected honorary chairman for his lifetime, and remained as a director until 1972. He visited the company’s facilities until his health began to fail in the early 1980s and diabetes resulted in permanent blindness. Grumman died in 1982 after a long illness.
Grumman received the Medal for Merit from the U.S. President in 1948, an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1950, the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for aeronautics pioneering, and the National Academy of Sciences Award in Aeronautical Engineering (1968). He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1972, the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1973, and the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame in 2002.
The USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO-195), a United States Naval fleet replenishment oiler, christened by Grumman’s three daughters, was launched in 1988 and delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1989. In January 2011, a Civil Air Patrol Squadron from Northport, New York, was renamed in Grumman’s honor as the Leroy R. Grumman Cadet Squadron.