In 1929, the Loening Aeronautical company was taken over by Curtiss-Wright. The new owners
wanted to move the company and its production facilities to Pennsylvania, however a small group
of Loening employees didn’t feel like uprooting their lives and moving across the country.
Five individuals, Leroy Grumman, Julius Holpit, Albert Loening, William Schwendler and
Jake Swirbul, chose to remain and the formed the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.
Unlike some manufacturers who started on unsteady financial ground, Grumman would have an
easier beginning. It was completely and privately financed by Grover Loening, who also provided the
manufacturing rights to the Loening retractable landing gear hull and float designs. This secured
an early line of cashflow, along with their first Navy contracts, and this allowed Grumman to
develop and produce the Model A and Model B floats which equipped the Vought O2U and O3U observation
planes. These early production runs allowed the company to develop its facilities, which led to
the development of their first fighter – the FF – and they were soon approached about the
development of an amphibious aircraft as well. In 1931 the US Navy reassigned the letter J
as the designator for a new type of general utility aircraft, previously J had been used
solely for transports. These new utility aircraft would be purpose built for deployment with utility
flights aboard carriers, at shore bases, and attached to special utility vessels.
The first design received by the Navy would not come from Grumman, however. The newly relocated
Grover Loening Aicraft Company submitted a privately developed design called the XO2L-1. This
shared many of the design featues of Loening’s early models, but in general was more streamlined
and modernised. The US Navy tested Loening’s prototype in 1932 and it received high praise,
but Grover Loening had no production facilities to meet the Navy’s requirements. It was then that the
Navy approached Grumman, who had now already established production of their FF fighter,
to redesign the prototype and submit their own proposal. Grumman quickly completed
preliminary design work, and a prototype was ordered under the designation XJF-1.
It was designed as a compact, single-bay biplane which had a crew of two seated in tandem.
It featured a fully enclosed canopy, something that was finally becoming more commonplace in
aircraft design, and it could also accommodate two passengers seated side-by-side in the rear
of the float. Access to this compartment was through a set of folding doors in the floor of
the rear cockpit, as the float was faired into the fuselage in a style typical of Loeining designs.
Being an amphibian, it also featured a traditional landing gear, the main landing gear retracted into
the float and the tailwheel along with its housing doubled as a water-rudder. Meanwhile for carrier
operations it had an arrestor hook that extended down from the rearmost section of the fuselage.
Power would be provided by a Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp, which was a fourteen-cylinder radial engine
that was rated at 700hp. Though later models would be unarmed, the prototype was designed to
carry a 30 calibre machine gun which was operated from the rear cockpit, and a single 100lb bomb
could be carried under each of the lower wings. The XJF-1 was completed by April 1933
and flew for the first time on the 24th, taking off from a grass field in front of Grumman’s Long
Island factory. It was then delivered to the Naval Air Station in Washington D.C for flight
evaluations on the 4th of May 1933. These evaluations passed without any major
problems, and the only minor redesign work that resulted from them was to the vertical tail
surfaces. Evaluation flights had revealed some longitudinal instability, and whilst it wasn’t
horrific, its effects would be exasperated in poor weather conditions, especially when it came
to carrier operations. The tail surfaces were thus redesigned into a broader, squarer shape,
and upon returning for follow-up examinations the prototype was accepted and what would become known
as the Grumman Duck was ordered into production. Full production began at the start of 1934,
and the first JF-1 entered service at the Naval Air station Norfolk, Virginia
during May of 1934. Several iterations of the Duck would be developed over a short period of time,
and as a result of this only 27 of the original JF-1s would be produced. Many of these would serve
with the Marine Corps starting from February 1935. In total, JF-1s serving with VJ-1 Utility Squadron
would be attached to USS WRIGHT, USS SARATOGA, USS LEXINGTON, USS RANGER, and the USS HERON. JF-1s
were also present at the Fleet Air Bases in the Canal Zone, Pearl Harbor, and the Philippines.
While the provision for offensive and defensive armament was retained with the JF-1,
most operating aircraft had this removed so that an additional crew position for a
radio operator could be added instead. Along with the JF-1, production had begun
on the JF-2 which had been specifically ordered for use by the US Coast Guard.
These were built from the outset as unarmed aircraft and could be easily identified by the
loop antenna of their radio direction finder. The only other major differences between the JF-2 and
the JF-1 was the removal of the arrestor hook and a change in engine, with the newer model powered
by a nine-cylinder Wright Cyclone. This engine was smaller than the Twin Wasp but produced the
same amount of power. In total 15 of the JF-2s would be built over the course of 1935, and they
would be operated across various coastal states on the US mainland as well as Hawaii and Alaska.
As production on the initial model of the Duck was winding up, a final variant was also built.
A batch of five JF-3s were built for Navy and Marine Corps reserve units in 1935. Again these
were now powered by a 9 Cylinder Wright Cyclone, though it now produced 750hp instead of 700, and
they were also delivered without arrestor hooks. When the last of these were delivered by Grumman,
production was halted so that modifications could be made to the aircrafts over design.
Not long after the first JF-1s had been delivered for the navy, it was realised that with
some design changes – though none of them were considered major – the Duck could also be used
for target towing, smoke laying, medical transport, or reconnaissance duties.
Though it wasn’t a complete redesign, enough changes had been made that the new design
differed from the JF series enough to receive the new designation of J2F.
The J2F series of the Duck carried additional equipment in light of its new multi-role design,
but with the exception of having the float extended by an additional foot,
and a change of powerplant, the airframe itself remained largely unchanged.
The first J2F-1 flew on the 3rd of April 1936 and was delivered for full evaluation the same day.
During that year a production run of 21 units was ordered, and like the original JF-1 these
were equipped with a 30 calibre machine gun and provisions for wing-mounted bombs. This order was
complete in 1937, but like its predecessor the J2F would be delivered in a number of variants,
and this first production order was not only the smallest but one of many.
1938 saw the arrival of the J2F-2, of which Grumman received an order for thirty planes.
These were built mostly for the Marine Corps, and were powered by a 790hp version of the
Wright Cyclone, and instead of a three blade they drove a two blade propeller.
The J2F-3 was another unarmed version of the Duck. This model was built for US Navy attaches and the
Commandant of the US Naval Academy. Outfitted for VIP use as so-called admiral’s barges,
these were recognisable for their dark blue and silver paint scheme. Twenty of these were built,
but aside from that not much is known about them. Production numbers grew rapidly in 1939/1940.
With the threat of war looming closer, America established new military outposts
along its maritime borders. The Duck was well suited to operate from these improvised bases,
which were usually shallow inlets facilities that sometimes had nothing more than a simple
docking ramp. In September 1939, production of 32 J2F-4s began; this variant was almost identical as
the previous models with the exception of some slightly modernised equipment in the cockpit.
The final model of the Grumman-built Ducks was the J2F-5, and the first of a 144 unit production
order arrived in July 1941. These now had a more powerful 950hp version of the Wright Cyclone, and
the engine cowling was broadened to cover the oil cooler for added protection. It was also designed
to carry a greater payload, being able to carry 325lb depth charges for maritime patrol duties.
As the war escalated, the US Navy needed Grumman to aid in the production of torpedo bombers and
fighters. As a result of this, production of the J2F was transferred to the Columbia
Aircraft Corporation based in Long Island. The Columbia-built variant was known as the J2F-6
and they built 330 units over the course of the second world war.
In total 584 models of the J2F would be built, with the majority being the J2F-5 and the J2F-6.
Though many were retained at bases in the United States or away from the front during the way,
some Ducks operated by the Marines and Navy distinguished themselves in the Pacific,
and in one notable event a J2F-5 evacuated several VIPs from the Phillipenes, one of whom
was Carlos Romulo, who would later become the president of the Republic of The Phillipenes.
After the war some Ducks were taken from surplus and overhauled for arctic operations as the
OA-12 – a name taken from a single Duck that was used by the Army Air Force during the war.
These Ducks were assigned to the 10th Air Rescue Squadron as part of the Alaskan Air Command,
and they were operated well into the 1950s. Though often forgotten, or simply not mentioned,
the Duck also saw some service overseas as Grumman’s first export aircraft.
Between 1937 and 1959 Argentina would operate 44 aircraft of various models,
some were Ex-US Navy models, but some were also purpose built for export and designated as the
G-15 and G-20. The acquisition of the Ducks had facilitated the creation of the first
true Naval observation squadrons of the Argentine Navy. They formed the eyes of the fleet during a
time when radar equipped ships did not exist, and then later on when they were absent.
Ducks were also acquired by Colombia and Mexico, the former acquiring three and the latter two.
No records exist for the Colombian models, but it is recorded that the Mexican Ducks served in the
Vera Cruz region from 1947 until 1951. A number of ducks went into civil use after
the war in the US. Some appeared in film and tv shows, some were used to ferry businessmen from
Long Island to Wall Street, and some were even used as firefighting aircraft. For this reason
a number of various Ducks survive today, all of them being found in the United States.
As far as early designs go, the Duck was a huge success for Grumman, and it helped them establish
a relationship with the US Navy that led to the development of several Iconic aircraft.
Some of these would become the backbone for Naval air power during the pacific war,
and some would become cold war legends. But those are stories for another day.
As always thank you all so much for watching, and I’ll catch you all next time. Goodbye.