Color Me Rare-Grumman's F2F-1

Flight Journal, Jun 2004 by Bodie, Warren M

BACK IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION year of 1933, the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. created a tubby new "Flying Barrel" carrier-based experimental fighter for the U.S. Navy. The design and proposal for this single-seat fighter were generated just before Grumman moved from its small Valley Stream, New York, plant (really just a hangar) to a former truck plant in Farmingdale, New York, just yards up the street from Seversky Aircraft's plant. Chief engineer William Schwendler led a small engineering team in creating the XF2F-1 fighter, which was powered by a brand-new 650hp Pratt & Whitney R-1535-44 two-row radial engine. The airplane grossed just 3,540 pounds and showed a speed of 230mph in early test flights. Remarkably, it had a service ceiling of 27,500 feet, which probably made it the best performing carrier-based fighter in the world at that time.

By 1934, Navy's BuAer had ordered 55 F2F-1s to serve on four fleet aircraft carriers: Lexington (CV-2), Hanger (CV-4), Yorktown (CV-5) and Wasp (CV-7). The metal-fuselage F2F-1s, with their bright orange/yellow top-wing upper surface, colorful cowling and fuselage bands with their color-coded empennages were a delight to see during the between-the-wars years. They had a wingspan of only 28 ½ feet, but the 21-foot, 1-inch fuselage made a lasting impression. Unlike other countries' naval fighters, the Grumman featured an enclosed cockpit. Its top speed was rated at 240mph, and it had a retractable landing gear. A tight NACA cowling enclosed a radial engine that swung a Hamilton Standard controllable-pitch propeller.

No color photograph of a Navy F2F-1 has ever appeared in any publication before, and none was known to exist prior to the discovery of this single view taken in 1940 by naval aviation cadet Edward Simpson Jr. in Florida. This Grumman "Flying Barrel" is in full prewar carrier-squadron markings for service aboard the USS Wasp, but it had been withdrawn from first-line service, which included Neutrality Patrol duty in the Atlantic as indicated by the rare national insignia stars on the fuselage. If this is a photo of the second F2F-1 delivered (c/n 204), it was flown 1,474 hours before it crashed in Miami, Florida, on February 22, 1942 while serving as a fighter-trainer.

-Warren M. Bodie