An aircraft factory in Manhattan

Grover Loening incorporated his company in New York City in 1917. After a spell in Queens and a fifth-floor loft in Hell’s Kitchen, it built a factory in 1921 and 1922 on East 31st Street, by the East River. Aircraft were at first craned into the water off a pier; later a floating ramp let them taxi straight into the river. Early products included the M-8 monoplane fighter, of which 55 were built.

The Loening Amphibian

The breakthrough was the OL, or Loening Amphibian, first flown in 1923. It had a large single hull fixed under the fuselage, wing floats and landing gear wound up by hand crank, so it could work from land or water. The Army and Navy bought it, and 165 were built, followed by the C-1 and C-2 civil amphibians. Its hull was built of Duralumin on a wooden frame with five watertight compartments, and the Liberty engine was mounted inverted to give the propeller clearance.

The men who stayed behind

In 1928 Loening merged with Keystone, and in 1929 the unit became Keystone-Loening, part of Curtiss-Wright, with production due to move to Pennsylvania. Several employees, including Leroy Grumman, Jake Swirbul and William Schwendler, chose to stay in New York and founded Grumman. Grover Loening set up a new company in Garden City that ran until 1936. Grumman set up on Long Island in 1929. The Garden City firm built the XSL, a small flying boat meant to be carried by a submarine.

Factories

• East 31st Street plant · Kips Bay, Manhattan, New York — Opened 1922 with a floating ramp into the East River
• West 52nd Street loft · Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan — Earlier fifth-floor premises

People

• Grover Loening · founder, designer — Founded the company in 1917 and Grover Loening Aircraft Company in 1929
• Leroy Grumman · engineer — Left after the merger to co-found Grumman
• Jake Swirbul · manager — Co-founder of Grumman