Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008 - Grumman's Revenge

When the Japanese sent their planes over Pearl Harbor, the Americans, besides being surprised, made a startling discovery. They didn't possess any aircraft capable of dealing with the Japanese Zero, and all of the planes that came over Pearl Harbor were Japanese Zeros.

The Zeros were faster, nimbler, better armed, able to climb higher and dive more steeply. The few American pilots, climbing into aircraft that had not been blasted to smithereens on the ground, went down a runway and up into the air to fight the Zeros hand to hand and were lucky to get back alive. You can't fight a Zero with slow biplanes named Buffalo Brewsters. These were dark days for the American military.

But the word got out. In the assault on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had lost a few of their Zeros. And so the Americans had pieces of them in enough quantity to be able to determine why they were so good. Specifications for the Zeros were quickly sent out to anyone making airplanes who wanted to see them. There needed to be an answer. And there was.

A man named Leroy Grumman, who was building airplanes in a garage in Baldwin, Long Island, built and flew something he thought could beat a Zero. The military in New York City watched it fly and were very impressed. An assembly line was quickly built in a warehouse near Baldwin, and Leroy now oversaw the production of what he called the Grumman F4F Wildcat. It was heavier, stronger and more armored than the Zero. It was faster. It had more weapons. And even if it was not as nimble as the Zero, there was a strategy that, if used, could give it the advantage. Fly it high. Then dive down through the Zeros and pick them off in a surprise attack.

As the war progressed, the Wildcat and its successor, the F6F Hellcat, which was all of the above AND as nimble as the Zero, slowly took down the entire arsenal of Zeros that the Japanese possessed.

At the end of the war, with only a few Zeros left, the Japanese ordered that pilots pledge themselves to the Emperor and fly them on suicide missions into the sides of the American battle cruisers if they could. Some succeeded. Most failed, shot down by buzzing Hellcats, which came from nearby aircraft carriers to circle around over the warships to protect them.

Needless to say, Leroy Grumman became an American hero, a man to whom the entire nation was indebted. After the war, the Navy contracted Grumman to build the next generation of fighter planes for their aircraft carriers, and after that, the next. The very best scientists and engineers came to work at Grumman, first at Bethpage and later here on eastern Long Island in Calverton, where Grumman built a military airport in the middle of the Pine Barrens.

For two entire generations, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Grumman designed and then built and tested - you'd often see them streaking overhead - the most sophisticated aircraft on the planet. And even beyond the planet. The F-14 Tomcat, immortalized in Tom Cruise's movie Top Gun, was far and away the best fighter plane in the world from 1975 to 1995. The E-2 Hawkeye, with its surveillance dish mounted on top, was the most sophisticated spy plane in the world. And the Moon Rover, built for the Astronauts, was the first and only manned vehicle ever built for use beyond our planet. All were built in Calverton.

But times change. And by the early 1980s, the relationship between Grumman and the Navy was considered by most Americans as just too cozy for comfort. Why weren't there serious competitions for the next new Navy aircraft?

There was a really good answer for this, but apparently, it was just not good enough. In the early 1990s, when it had become apparent that Grumman was not going to be selected from among the half dozen other rivals now bidding for the new Navy plane, Grumman officials struck out in new directions. They bought a company that made canoes. They bought a bus company and, with the trusted Grumman name on the side, won the competition for the next generation of busses for the City of New York. But when the first hundred or so of these Iowa built busses were delivered, they kept breaking, sometimes by breaking their axles, as they pounded through the potholes of New York City. Mayor Ed Koch, in a rage, backed out of the contract and had all the new busses scrapped.

And so, Grumman was to be one of the earliest victims of a new American business rule, which was called Grow or Die. They died. In 1994, without a major contract and with just 4,000 employees left from the highpoint of 32,000 employees in 1980, Grumman was sold to Northrop Aviation based in California. Everybody moved away. After some debate, Northrop decided the Grumman name was better than the Northrop name. They renamed their company Northrop-Grumman. And with their new name, they thrived on the fringes of aviation, a second line company in a world of Lockheeds and Boeings that nevertheless was able to pick up contracts for trainers, commercial aviation aircraft, small cargo planes and other transportation vehicles.

Last week, the government announced the results of the competition to build the next generation of their big warhorse C-130 cargo plane. The two competitors were Northrop-Grumman, which had made an alliance with the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, and on the other side was Boeing, which was the maker of the C-130.

This was no ordinary contract. The value of the initial order of these planes would be $30 billion. That's right, billion with a B. The long-range value of the contract would exceed $100 billion. This amount exceeds the gross national product of many foreign countries.

As you probably know, Boeing based in Seattle is the largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft in the world. They have recently been challenged by Airbus, the European consortium with its headquarters in Toulouse, France that, according to many in the business, has a considerable advantage over Boeing because it is owned by actual countries with almost limitless resources. Boeing has filed lawsuits about this.

But Airbus has its own argument. Boeing has the long-term support of the American military. And the American military rivals Europe.

Last year, it appeared that Airbus might actually surpass Boeing in size. But Airbus suffered a disaster. Its new superplane, an aircraft that would be able to accommodate about 800 passengers on two decks, developed technical trouble during the construction process. Airbus postponed the delivery of this aircraft. Then postponed it again. The postponement is now in the neighborhood of five years and counting, and this has seriously messed up the planning of many major airlines, all of which have now cancelled their orders and turned back to Boeing. What a setback for Airbus.

Well, guess which bidder won the contract for the successor of the C-130 cargo plane? It was announced last week. On its merits, Northrop-Grumman, allied with Airbus, has won with a plan for a cargo plane that will be better, cheaper and more practical than what was proposed by Boeing.

Call it Leroy Grumman's revenge, if you like. Whatever it is, it's quite a turnaround for the American military and will have as serious impact on Boeing as the superplane is having on Airbus.

Of course, it's too late for the Eastern End of Long Island. All that remains of Grumman out here these days is the big merry-go-round that is the centerpiece of downtown Greenport, given to that town by Grumman for $1 when they closed up shop in Calverton. It had been in Calverton for employee parties on the picnic grounds of that site during all those years.

As for the runways at that airport, they are still there, although one of them is soon to be dug up and replaced with a lake, around which will be all sorts of rides and entertainments of a new theme park which will have as its centerpiece a 40-story tall ski mountain.

That is, if the presence of endangered short-eared hoot owls found on the property grazing for the winter doesn't stop that project. But that's another story.