What if Grumman goes under - 1936?

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In keeping with a recent theme:

What if Grumman goes out of business around 1936 after failing to secure a Navy contract for the F3F biplane fighter?
GrummanXF3-1.jpg


The F3F & it's immediate predecessor the F2F both suffered from stability issues - at least in development. OTL 1935, the first F3F prototype broke up in midair killing the test pilot (it was pulling extraoridinary "G's"at the time). The second OTL prototype also crashed, but was rebuilt. The Navy stuck by Grumman and eventually ordered 54 planes following successful completion of the test runs. The F3F was the indirect parent of the F4F Wildcat/Martlet, and the several times grandparent of a host of hall-of-fame naval aircraft.

Events could have played out differently, had the Navy not allowed the Grumman team to rebuild the second crashed F3F prototype. Also, the Brewster F2A Buffalo was in development during the same time frame. While the Buffalo is often mocked today in hindsight, it was cutting edge in 1937 at the time of it's first flight. IF Grumman couldn't continue the tests of the F3F, perhaps their business falters and they go out of business altogether, or sell out to another competitor.

IF no F3F, then possibly no:
* F4F Wildcat
* F5F Skyrocket (the parent of the Tigercat)
* F6F Hellcat
* F7F Tigercat
* F8F Bearcat
* F9F Panther
* A-6 Intruder
* F-14 Tomcat
Several other storied aircraft

What company and planes fills the void of a failed Grumman Aircraft?
 
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Didn´t Boeing built some fughter or planes to the Navy?Also Curtiss?Navalised version of the Hawk 75P/P36?
 
Boeing, Seversky, Vought, & Curtiss all built (or competed for) USN contracts. Without the F4F, there's some pressure to get the F4U in service sooner...especially as the flaws in the B.139 become evident--not to mention the flaws in Brewster management & quality control.:rolleyes:

Beyond that... You could maybe see a navalized P-41/P-43. Maybe, given the size & weight of the F4U, the F8B is accepted. Or maybe the R4360-powered F2G is.:eek::cool::cool:

Does this butterfly away the USN F-111 (without the swing-wing of the F-14)?

Maybe more important in the short term, what does Britain do to replace the F4Fs she'd otherwise buy? Does she buy P-41s? Or arrange licence production of the F4U in Canada (as proposed in another thread), as the F4W?:cool::cool: (OTL, that was the Canadian-built Bear...)
 
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If Grumman collapses, then they never license Canadian Car and Foundry to build biplane fighters.
Who is going to build all those Lend-Lease Hurricanes for Russia?
Does that mean that CCF goes bankrupt trying to build Curtiss Helldivers?
 
Grumman wasn't that reliant on the F3F, still had other export sales, and Duck, Goose and Widgeon Production.

Grumman build a demonstrator, The Gulfhawk II for Al Williams and the Gulf Oil. Used for aerobatic displays. Was popular.

All was a famous pilot at the time, and he liked Grumman more than Curtiss who made the first Gulfhawk. So they built him a plane that was a mix of the F2F and F3F, and he liked it, as did the crowds who watched his act.

On a tour in Germany, he got to fly the new Bf-109 in exchange for Udet flying the Gulfhawk II

So even without the F3F contract Grumman had enough going for them to keep in the game.

Now having Williams die in the Gulfhawk II would have been a lot more damaging than losing the USN biplane fighter contract, but still not fatal to Grumman, who might end up making planes for Vought till the Navy or Air Corps pick one of their fighter designs.
 
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