USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 6
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume III > Part 6
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founders had the keenest interest in aeronautics; but the time was not ripe for expansion into what became "the fastest growing industry in America." At first the principal occupation of the small plant was the repair of Loening amphibian "Air Yachts," which the Loening Company had stopped making. The Grum- man group began production of an amphibian float gear for the United States Navy, and the company made a reputation on the construction of the few orders received from Washington. This new float made every navy scout plane a potential amphibian. It was compelled, however, to enter the field of manufacturing new types of bodies for motor trucks, and developed a chassis-less trailer for trucks. This would have provided continued work had the man- agement of the company not believed there was a greater and longer future in the field of airplane de- sign. Specializing on "floats" for amphibian aircraft, Grumman secured navy contracts for its "Model B."
Such was the beginning of long and immense busi- ness with the navy.
In this article written for laymen, no attempt can be made to indicate ten years of progress in the manufacture of floats, amphibians and combat aircraft, known only in the records under letters and numbers, as for example F3F-I, of 1935; SBF-I, of 1936; and other similar designations.
Regarding the story of the Grumman Aircraft En- gineering Corporation, the important feature to our country was its growth and the quality of men at- tracted to its organization. Because the quality of its products resulted in more and more orders, the corporation had to seek larger quarters and acquired the old Naval Reserve Hangar in the abandoned Curtiss Airport at Valley Stream, to which place the organization moved in November, 1931.
Although the aviation industry as a whole was in the doldrums, Grumman required still larger plant facilities and in November, 1932, the full-sized factory of the Fairchild Corporation, in Farmingdale, was secured and occupied. In 1936 work was begun clear- ing scrub oaks and pines on a large tract of land in Bethpage. The first of a series of plants was erected on this site on April 8, 1937, the third and final move was made to Bethpage, which has since witnessed the constant and immense growth in plant and output.
With the "home coming" came a contract from the Government for F3F-2's, the greatest number of ships ever ordered from Grumman under a single contract.
The best in machinery was set up and more practi- cal methods of production introduced. The production of the large order of new navy fighter planes employed the entire shop force. An additional number of men was hired and work on an export order of an earlier fighter model was carried on in the hangar.
On July 16, 1937, the first commercial Gray Goose was delivered. Daily orders for this fast, rugged am- phibian were received, and by the end of the year the list of owners was a veritable "Blue Book" of im- portant men in America.
The Grumman Company's tenth year began with design work based on the most accurate and advanced data known, and from knowledge accumulated in the files of the company's growing experience. In the lat- ter part of May, the engineering department, in- creased in both size and personnel, occupied the addi- tional three thousand square feet of floor space re- cently constructed. During the summer the new paint spraying room was completed. The shop personnel, in- creased to its greatest number, totalled some seven hundred men. Production of Gray Geese for the
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army, the navy, and the coast guard kept the hangar crew working overtime, while the main body of the shop was similarly employed with F3F-3's, the good old reliable J2F's, an order for the Argentine Navy, and preliminary work on the most recently acquired contract for the production of the Wildcat fighters.
In 1939, at the end of the tenth year, the outlook was more than good. The Grumman Company oc- cupied an additional forty-eight thousand square feet of floor space, bringing the plant total to one hundred and forty-eight thousand square feet. New designs matured on the drafting boards, indicating another decade of progress.
The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation pointed with pride, and deservedly so, to its accom- plishments, and looked forward to the year in which it might do a ten, fifteen or even twenty million dollar business. Nor was it disappointed, for in 1941 the gross sales totaled nearly twenty-two millions. Three years later the gross sales amounted to $323,749,330.90. In 1939, seven hundred worked in its shops; in less than a year employees numbered close to a thousand; another year and immediate years, the demand for men drained the reservoir of labor to the bottom.
Suddenly, in December 1941, the United States was at war. Although the Grumman Company was already about seven times the size it had been in 1939, the navy wanted more and more Wildcats and torpedo bombers, and the company had to expand in all directions. Dependable outside manufacturers were pressed into service to manufacture small parts and sub-assemblies, and additional thousands of men and women were trained by Grumman and absorbed into the plants as fast as possible.
In spite of almost tripling the number of employees between December, 1941, and December, 1942, and more than doubling the plant area, with all the atten- dant difficulties of hiring, training, expanding and moving, the navy's quotas were met.
Quick to appreciate the achievement, in April, 1942, the navy awarded its "E" for excellence, making Grumman the first manufacturer of airframes in the country to win the honor. The "E" was regularly awarded every six months thereafter until the spring . of 1944, when the navy said, in effect: "This is get- ting monotonous; keep it a year."
On top of the skyrocketing production record for 1942, flight tests were made, tooling was completed, and a whole squadron of new Hellcat fighters was built and on the way to war before the end of the year, a formidable record.
The Hellcat was truly a war baby. After Midway, in June, 1942, Jake Swirbul flew to Pearl Harbor to talk to the navy pilots and mechanics, who, better than any others, could tell him what was needed to match the Jap Zero. "More climb and more speed," was their prompt reply. Jake rushed right back and conferred with the engineers.
As "Time" magazine speeds up the story: "The first Hellcat was built in August 1942. Five months later, the production line began to tick them off. This was unheard-of speed in an industry which for- merly needed years to translate blueprints into planes. When a navy 'brass hat' dropped in to tell Grumman that he should expand to take care of Hellcat produc- tion, Swirbul pulled a mess of blueprints from his desk and said: 'We are.' When the officer said he would rush priorities for steel, Swirbul said: 'I've got steel.' And he had it, from Manhattan's razed Second Avenue elevated railway. But Grumman was still crowded for space. Wildcat and Avenger production was moved into General Motors' Eastern Aircraft Division
at Linden, and Trenton, New Jersey. The pattern which, in effect, made Grumman main purveyor to the navy had been set. Now all the fighters and torpedo planes on most navy carriers are Grumman-designed planes. This, more than words, shows what the navy thinks of Grumman."
Wildcat production was turned over to General Motors in January, 1943. Grumman continued to build Avengers throughout that year, ending up in Decem- ber with the two thousand five hundredth and a rous- ing speech from Under Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal. The year 1943 had been made notable on the home front by the trip to England of L. R. Grumman, and some of his engineers, to study latest developments in aircraft design. In September the long-awaited word of Hellcats in action was received, lifting a veil of secrecy that had tantalized their build- ers for more than a year.
Also in September Jake Swirbul originated the Grumman Incentive Bonus Plan, one of the first and most successful to be approved by the War Labor Board for the aircraft industry. By the end of the year more than five thousand Grumman employees had gone into military service, and more than eight thousand women had been added to shop personnel to keep the assembly lines rolling.
In January, 1944, Jake Swirbul set out to observe the Pacific war in person. With the cooperation of navy officials, he, as a civilian, traveled twenty-three thousand miles by air and one thousand two hundred by battleship.
Swirbul's trip was an example of the close wartime co-operation between Grumman and the navy, be- tween engineering and production know-how on the one hand and the exigencies of battle on the other. Grumman's fifteenth year continued on the up-beat. Not one, but several airplanes were developed for current navy and post-war commercial use. In the summer of 1944, the navy completed at Bethpage a four-million-dollar Engineering and Experimental Building and laid out enough contracts to keep the engineers busy for the next two years.
It is no secret that Grumman won out with the navy the hard way. Right up to World War II, the company for the most part had to take on jobs that nobody else wanted. Grumman received navy con- tracts for nearly every design they ever submitted, but the contracts were modest. Independent com- mercial and export business kept the company grad- ually growing.
Jake Swirbul, Roy Grumman and Bill Schwendler won on the battle front. The fundamentals they had stressed from the start, simplicity of design and ease of production, gave the navy the planes on time. Ease of operation and maintenance, specifically designed in- to planes, kept those planes flying.
"We took twenty Hellcats to Guadalcanal and used them for strafing, combat air patrol, and as escort for a striking force at Kahili and Vella La Vella. We used them seven days without respite, and we brought twenty back," said Commander Joseph C. (Jumping Joe) Clifton, one of the navy's number one air group leaders, on a visit to Grumman plants in 1944.
On a purely practical basis, that kind of record doubles the value and halves the cost. It saves lives. It proves that Grumman and Schwendler put first things first.
Said "Time" magazine, not without grounds: "If the navy can afford to keep only one plane company in business after the war, that company will be Grumman."
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The last word in this account of the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation may well be left to a publication of the company, when in 1945 it envisioned the future in the following words:
As the sixteenth year of Grumman history begins, the great global war still rages. Wherever the United States Navy goes, there, armed with Grumman fighters and torpedo bombers, are the mighty carriers, the Queens of the Fleet. The airplanes that ride on their decks were planned, designed and manufac- tured by men and women who have come from all walks of life to unite in a great engineering and production achievement on the Long Island countryside. The products of their minds and hands have won a sure place in history by virtue of the courage, skill and teamwork of the brave men who fly these war planes against our enemies.
In a memorable editorial on the Battle of the Philippines, Roy Howard wrote in The New York World-Telegram, "If toasts are to be made, we ought not to forget some people here at home, the people who make, for instance, those 400-knot Grumman fighter plancs that roost, on vengeance bent, aboard our carriers. They have wrought well."
Grumman engineering and production genius will continue to go forward when peace writes "Finis" to the history of this war. In a great new engineering and experimental building, new pro- jects are in progress which bid fair to dwarf the achievements of thesc fifteen years. Proud of the past, the Grumman organiza- tion can face the years ahead with confidence in the future.
LEROY RANDLE GRUMMAN-The Grumman name is known throughout the world because of the immense number of exceptionally efficient combat air- planes designed and manufactured by the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation for the United States Navy. This company has been headed by Leroy Grumman since it was initiated as a small enterprise late in 1929, then as afterwards chiefly interested in aeronautics. Under able leadership and brilliant asso- ciates, the concern was more nearly ready to serve our country than most others when the United States entered World War II. Quoting from an award of the Presidential Medal for Merit, conferred by Presi- dent Harry S. Truman in 1945 to Mr. Grumman and Mr. Swirbul: “. . . for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service ... in the design and production of several of the most efficient types of aircraft supplied the Navy. As heads of the Grumman Company ... an organization which, by outstanding initiative in searching out and mak- ing improvements, maintained its aircraft constantly at the forefront of operational and combat efficiency . has contributed greatly to the effectiveness of United States Naval Aviation. . . "
Leroy Randle Grumman was born in Huntington, on January 4, 1895, son of George T. and Grace E. (Conklin) Grumman. He prepared for higher educa- tion in New York schools and matriculated at Cornell University, where he was graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, class of 1916. He did post- graduate work at Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology (1918-1919), at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the meanwhile, 1916, Mr. Grumman had entered the employ of the New York Telephone Company, in its engineering department. He was a lieutenant in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1920, and after re- ceiving his honorable discharge from the armed forces, he joined the staff of Loening Aeronautical Engineer- ing Corporation, as an airplane engineer.
As already indicated, Mr. Grumman was the leader in the formation of a concern in 1929, of a group of courageous men who had confidence in their own abilities and the future of the airplane, principally of amphibians. At first one line of endeavor was the repair of Loening Company "Air Yachts," which this company had stopped from making. A story of the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation can be
found in this volume, so its development into one of the major aviation companies of World War II need not be reprinted here, except for certain un- related facts: 1. The Grumman Aircraft Engineer- ing Corporation delivered seventeen thousand com- bat airplanes to the United States Navy during the war period. And more than thirteen thousand addi- tional aircraft of Grumman design were sent to the navy from the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors Corporation. 2. During World War II, "ninety-eight percent of the Navy's torpedo bomb- ers, and sixty-five percent of the Navy fighter air- planes were Grumman designed planes and were pro- duced by Grumman and General Motors." 3. The Grumman Company received six of the Navy "E" for excellence. 4. Excerpts from a citation by the Sec- retary of the Navy: "What you have done for your country in the past fifteen years will be remembered as an example of the strength and resourcefulness of the American aircraft industry in peace and war. A solid foundation was laid in that small shop of yours fifteen years ago, and although the superstructure has grown beyond anything Roy Grumman and Jake Swirbul then dreamed of, it has remained unshaken. When you made promises, you kept them, and when the Navy asked you to do the impossible, you did that, too." . . "Your Wildcats held the line when the going was toughest. In the hands of men like Foss, Smith and Carl of the Marines, and Thach, Fletley and O'Hare of the Navy, they started the tide of victory in the Pacific. In the Atlantic, teamed with Avengers, they escorted millions of tons of vital materials and hundreds of thousands of troops, safely through the submarine-infested sea lanes.
"The first of your Avengers were completed, thanks to a foresighted building program, in time to hit the Japanese fleet at Midway in 1942. Although other planes have come and gone, the Avenger now being manufactured to Grumman patterns by General Mo- tors is still the Navy's Number One torpedo bomber, made doubly versatile by the skill and daring of the Navy and Marine crews who fly it.
"I think everyone has heard of your Hellcats and of the reputation you achieved in 1943 when you set an all-time record in the aircraft industry for accelerat- ing production. I have no doubt that you would still be beating your own record month after month if the Navy had not had to slow you down a little.
"Of your F7F, the Tigercat, it need only be said that Navy and Marine pilots have been expecting great things of it, and I am quite sure they will not be disappointed.
"A couple of years ago I said that, in my opinion, Grumman saved Guadalcanal; that is to say, Grum- man airplanes were largely responsible for saving a most important foot-hold in the Pacific. Grumman Aircraft has been a Mainstay of the Navy's carrier forces since your earliest days, and you have never failed us. On behalf of the United States Navy, and of the American people, I give you hearty thanks. (Signed) James Forrestal."
Leroy Randle Grumman is a Fellow of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences; member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and other allied organizations. His clubs include New York Yacht Club and the North Hempstead Country Club, the Yacht Club of Manhasset Bay, and the Aviation Country Club, of Hicksville, all located on Long Island. Mr. Grum- man worships in the faith of the Presbyterian Church, and is liberal in his co-operation with religious, chari- table and community projects.
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On March 19, 1921, Leroy Randle Grumman mar- ried Rose Marion Werther, and they are the parents of the following children: Marion Elinor, Florence Werther, Grace Caroline, and David Leroy Grum- man.
LEON A. SWIRBUL-One of the men who came out of the airplane activities of World War II with increased reputation was Leon A. Swirbul, president of the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, of Bethpage and Long Island. Nothing can so well demonstrate the accuracy of this statement as to quote from an award of the Presidential Medal for Merit, conferred by President Harry Truman, in 1945, to Mr. Swirbul and Mr. Grumman, which was explained by the President in his citation: " ... for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstand- ing service . . . in the design and production of several of the most efficient types of aircraft sup- plied the Navy. As heads of the Grumman com- pany . an organization which, by outstanding initiative in searching out and making improvements, maintained its aircraft constantly at the forefront of operational and combat efficiency .... has contributed greatly to the effectiveness of United States Naval Aviation .. . " In the presentation of these awards, the navy has extended a great tribute to the entire Grumman organization. President Truman has called the Medal for Merit the highest possible civilian award.
A native of New York City, Mr. Swirbul was born in the metropolis on March 18, 1898, son of Albert and Lena Swirbul. To a large extent he had his own way to make in life, his chief inheritance being an excep- tional brain in an enduring body, both of which have stood up well under very great responsibilities and heavy burdens. After attending the public schools of Islip and Sag Harbor, he attended Cornell University, where he studied for a degree in Mechanical Engi- neering. Like many of his generation he served his country during World War I, his connection being with the United States Marines.
Upon returning to civilian life, Mr. Swirbul for several years was identified with the Thomas Morse Aircraft Company, at Ithaca, New York. One of the important moves in his career was when he went with the Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation, of New York. This concern had, perhaps, been ahead of its time in engaging in the production of amphibian airplanes, under the trade name "Air Yachts," that were expected to interest important and wealthy busi- ness men and industrial executives. These craft sold, but with inadequate profit, and the Loening Corporation went out of business in 1930.
It was at that time that Mr. Swirbul joined forces witlı Leroy R. Grumman to organize a firm that would take over the job of keeping the "Air Yachts" and other amphibians in shape to take to the air. This small group did not find all they hoped for in this line of work, and branched out in other lines of endeavor mainly associated with land transport, motor trucks and the like. It is worthy of more than passing note that the Grumman-Swirbul combination never lost sight of its original interest, aeronautics, nor of the purpose to contribute new and valuable ideas and mechanisms that would promote the cause of aviation. It was a combination of the practical with imagination and mechanical genius. It was due to this type of enlightened vision, courageous enter- prise and very hard work that the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation had the bases upon which were built one of the largest aviation industrial com-
panies of the world. Of this company Leon A. Swir- bul was executive vice president from its inauguration until 1946 when he became president.
A brief account of the Grumman Aircraft Engineer- ing Corporation is published in this volume, and must be read to become acquainted with the history of this noteworthy concern, in war and in peace. Without attempting to assign any one idea or practice of the corporation to any one man, it is fair to state that Mr. Swirbul was largely responsible for the "dis- persal system" introduced in Grumman, during World War II, which scatters the plants over eleven to fifteen various towns on Long Island. While on a trip to England, prior to our entrance into the war, Mr. Swirbul had an opportunity to see first hand the ad- vantages of the "dispersal system," for he was in London during the bombing of that city. He probably did not fear bombing of Grumman plants by the enemy, but he had the foresight to realize that with the company employing thousands it was advisable to distribute them over as wide an area as was practical. Once, upon being asked how he brought this about while keeping up production, he replied simply: "No red tape about priorities and building contracts-we just lease a garage or a wheelbarrow factory and move in."
He is a strong advocate of sports and believes that they are of exceptional value in promoting the team work that is an essential in successful industry. Mr. Swirbul feels that such recreative activity should be one of the methods used in breaking the monotony of confined application in a highly industrialized so- ciety, and believes that the let-down in industry and the generally reduced effort following the war stresses the need for such a recreational program.
One biographer of Leon A. Swirbul recounts: "In January 1944, Jake Swirbul set out to observe the Pacific war in person. With the cooperation of Navy officials, he, as a civilian, traveled twenty-three thousand miles by air and one thousand, two hundred by battleship, visiting a dozen key points where he met and talked with pilots and with top-ranking Army and Navy officials: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Ad- miral William F. Halsey, Vice Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch, Vice Admiral John H. Towers, General Doug- las MacArthur, Major General William Mitchell and others.
"From a battleship in the attacking force, he watched the bombardment of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for two days and saw amphibious forces seize it on the third: 'a perfect pattern of the co-ordination of air, sea and land military power,' he said.
"Resistance liad not yet fully ended when he went ashore on Kwajalein-the first civilian in this war, with the exception of correspondents, to set foot on captured Japanese soil.
"Swirbul's trip was an example of the close war- time co-operation between Grumman and the Navy- between engineering and production know-how on the one hand and the exigencies of battle on the other."
Those who insist on placing a man's career in a single category, may rank Swirbul as an industrial executive, a "big boss," but one never of the arm chair type. When he said, "Let's get together on this job" he meant it literally-they and himself, and he probably could do about everything he asked em- ployees to do. Commented one associate, "His door had always been open and he saw no reason for clos- ing it after the company grew to five hundred and then many more times its original size. He had always been "Jake" to the men in the shop and he saw no
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reason for discontinuing the friendship just because there were now more of them. Their problems he felt were his, and if in place of having a bull session with them in his office, he now had to make fifteen separate speeches with the aid of a battery of loudspeakers to reach every one, he still liked to talk things over. He said of himself, "You'll notice I usually have something to tell them, and when they see me com- ing they know that there's something to listen to." Sometimes when visiting, business executives ex- pressed surprise over company recreational programs, variety of sports, and many employees' personal serv- ices offered, "Jake" told his questioners, "We've got the best bunch of people in the country working here and look around-they seem to like it." The change from war to peace-time operations has not changed Mr. Swirbul. As this is being written (1946) he is deep in a campaign to secure adequate housing for veterans and workers. He is not notable for member- ships in organizations, although always co-operative with projects that make for the benefit of his fellow- men. When time and opportunity permit, he enjoys hunting and golf.
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