Biplane Fighters in Action
During the 1930s U.S. aircraft carriers operated a variety of fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft produced by Boeing, Curtiss, Grumman, and Vought, while several other aircraft firms produced prototype carrier fighters for Navy evaluation. But by 1939 all six Navy carriers and both Marine Corps fighter squadrons flew Grumman biplane fighters.1 And, of course, with the coming of monoplane fighters, most U.S. carrier decks were soon filled with Grumman F4F Wildcats and then with the supreme World War II naval fighters, Grumman F6F Hellcats.
The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Company had started in January 1930, building parts for seaplanes in a garage in Baldwin, Long Island, New York. The firm soon gained a reputation for innovation, especially for its fully retractable landing gear, which provided a significant increase in aircraft performance. The Navy Department asked Grumman if the gear could be provided for the fighter planes being built by other firms.
Instead, Grumman designed its own fighter—the XFF-1, a stubby biwing with a crew of two under a transparent canopy.2 It was an all-metal aircraft with fully retractable landing gear and an arresting hook for carrier landings. When retracted, the main wheels were raised vertically to lie flush with the fuselage. It was the first naval fighter with retractable landing gear.3
Responding to Bureau of Aeronautics specifications, the fighter had neither a radio nor provisions for catapulting or for mounting floats, as did most other carrier aircraft of the time. Its gun armament consisted of two fixed, forward-firing .30-caliber machine guns and a flexible .30-caliber gun mounted in the back of the two-man cockpit. It also had provisions for carrying two 110-pound bombs.
The single XFF-1 prototype flew on 29 December 1931, and the Navy soon awarded Grumman a contract to produce FF-1 fighters. Tipping the scales at a gross weight of 4,829 pounds, the plane could reach 207 mph, about 20 mph faster than any other fighter of its day. Powered by a Wright R-1820 radial engine, its ceiling was 22,100 feet.
The U.S. Navy took delivery of 27 FF-1s from April to November 1933. Only one fleet squadron flew the barrel-shaped aircraft, VF-5B on board the carrier Lexington (CV-2). The squadron had the aircraft until 1935, when all surviving FF-1s were sent to the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia for conversion to the FF-2 configuration, with dual controls. They were then assigned to the Naval Reserve.
Meanwhile, the FF-1 was licensed to the Canadian Car and Foundry Corp. of Fort Williams, Ontario, which assembled the Grumman fighter for export. These were similar to the American variant, but with an enlarged engine cowl, no arresting hook, and in most aircraft, a controllable-pitch propeller. The primary customer was the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Shipments began under the cover story that the planes were bound for Turkey. When the ruse was discovered, the shipments halted after 34 were at sea en route to Spain. Of the remainder, one went to the Japanese navy, one to the Mexican air force, and one the Nicaraguan air force; eventually the Royal Canadian Air Force—with great reluctance—accepted the 15 remaining aircraft. Named Goblins, they flew with the Canadians from September 1940 until April 1942.
On Long Island, Grumman built 34 SF scout fighters, similar to the FF-1, with one forward-firing machine gun deleted and an additional 45 gallons of fuel provided. A single improved XSBF-1 was also built, which the Navy did not order into production. The SF-1 also entered carrier service on board the Lexington, with scouting squadron VS-3B.
Improvements to the FF-1 led to the single-seat F2F, which first flew on 18 October 1933. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps procured 54 of these aircraft in addition to two prototype XF2F-1s.
Next came the definitive F3F, which first flew as the XF3F-1 on 15 October 1934. Rated as the world’s fastest shipboard fighter, the F3F-2 could reach 260 mph at an altitude of 17,250 feet. The first two prototypes crashed, but a third XF3F-1 led to a Navy contract for 54 aircraft, delivered in 1936. The final production F3F-1 aircraft became the XF3F-2, and 81 -2s and 27 -3s with improved performance were delivered through 1939. The F3F thus became the standard U.S. naval fighter.
Although a relative latecomer to naval aviation, Grumman deliveries of the FF/F2F/F3F/SF/SBF series to the U.S. Sea Services totaled 285 aircraft. And, beyond the 52 produced in Canada, four civil aircraft in this series were built: two for the Gulf Oil Co., and two that Grumman retained as demonstration aircraft. Two of these were taken over by the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, being designated UC-103.
The naval aircraft remained in first-line service until October 1941, when Marine squadron VMF-211 shifted from the F3F to the Brewster F2A Buffalo monoplane fighter. A few F3Fs survived as trainers and utility aircraft until November 1943.
Many features of the biwing Grumman fighters were incorporated into the subsequent Grumman F4F Wildcat (with the original XF4F-1 being a biplane design). The Wildcat soon became the standard fighter of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps (as well as the Royal Navy, where it was nicknamed Martlet) until superseded by the F6F Hellcat.
1. The Grumman biplane fighters are described in detail in René J. Francillon, Grumman Aircraft since 1929 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989), and Richard S. Dann, Grumman Biplane Fighters in Action (Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1996).
2. The first “F” indicated fighter, and the second was the firm’s identification. The letter “G” was already assigned to the Great Lakes Engineering Corp.
3. The first U.S. Navy aircraft with retractable landing gear was the Lockheed XRO-1 Altair, a commercial plane acquired for use as the personal transport of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.