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Grumman F3F

1936 GOLDEN AGE WORLD WAR 2

Grumman F3F History

When the U.S. Navy (USN) adopted the Grumman F3F series, it took its last biplane fighter and then moved to a more modern monoplane form. 147 of this type were produced by Grumman, which established itself as a regular employee of the U.S. Navy, a relationship that would last into the Cold War years.

Manufacturing time span from 1936 to 1939. The first flight of the F3F prototype took place on March 20, 1935, and it entered service in 1936. Although the F3F was available at the beginning of World War II (1939-1945), it was not in service. In 1941, the main conflict on the line was cancelled as a front-line system - the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place on the 12th of that year month, when the United States officially entered the war.

The official discontinuation of the F3F series occurred in 1943 and its successor was the Brewster F2A "Buffalo" series, described elsewhere on this site.

The F3F is an improved version of the previous F2F biplane. The earlier designs had issues with stall/dive recovery and overall stability, leading the U.S. Navy to provide Grumman with a slightly modified model, designated "F3F." The prototype therefore adopted the codename "XF3F-1" and continued Pratt & Whitney's "Twin Wasp Junior" 700 hp radial piston engine and used a similar open-air cockpit biplane wing arrangement.

Notably, its general shape mimics the next Grumman fighter in the series, the classic WWII F4F "Wildcat" monoplane.

F3F - company model "G-11" - dimensional change compared to F2F. To address stability issues, its fuselage length has been slightly increased and the wing area has also been increased. The new design underwent extensive diving recovery tests, but one of those tests eventually resulted in the prototype crashing -- fatally for the company's test pilots -- when the XF3F-1 disintegrated in flight. This forced an overhaul of the design, adding reinforcement elements for durability, and producing a second airworthy prototype. The plane was lost again, this time unable to recover from the spinning maneuver, although the test pilot was able to eject in time.

Despite the crash, the fuselage was recovered and re-flyed in June 1935.

The XF3F-1 was ordered as "F3F-1" through an initial batch order of 54 after completing testing and taking appropriate action to address any issues that arise. The first aircraft arrived in late January 1936 and were assigned to the USS Ranger.

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) follows the US Navy with the F3F series.

Standard armament for the F3F consists of a .30 caliber Browning M1919 machine gun on the fairing (port side) and a .50 caliber Browning M2 heavy machine gun (HMG) on the fairing (starboard). The F3F also has an inherent bomb carrying/throwing capability, capable of towing 2 x 116 lb conventionally thrown bombs into battle.

As a private company, Grumman engineers designed and successfully tested the new Wright XR-1820-22 "Cyclone G" supercharged 850 hp system, which piqued the interest of the USN, ordering 81 to drop the "F3F-2" designation (Company model "G-19") July 1936. The completed operating model featured a Wright R-1820-22 "Cyclone" radial rated at 950 hp, and new engine modifications forced a revised front end that contributed to the aircraft's more powerful appearance.

Despite the changes, the F3F-2 proved to be a faster model of the aircraft compared to the original F3F-1.

Grumman didn't finish his work on the F3F as the "XF3F-3" was developed from the F3F-2 with the introduction of minor improvements (improved hood, curved windshield structure) , further advancing this lineage. A large propeller unit was also installed, and minor structural changes were made to produce a new service designation -- the "F3F-3" -- 27 of these new fighters were adopted by the US Navy.

The end of the line came when the U.S. Navy switched to monoplanes, although the F3F remained in a training role until the end of 1943, when it was finally abandoned.

In addition to the military version, there are some civilian developments. The G-22A "Gulfhawk II" was a 1938 two-seat demonstrator with a 1,000 hp Wright R-1820 "Cyclone" engine - one of which had already been built. The G-32/G-32A "Gulfhawk III" is a similar product and completed in two examples.

The G-32 aircraft once operated in the pilot training shuttle role as "C-103" under the USAAF banner.

By World War II, the Grumman F4F Wildcat had become the US Navy's primary fighter. The upcoming F6F "Hellcat" surpassed this, and with the arrival of the F8F "Panda", the Grumman fighter reached the pinnacle of piston power before the end of the war.