Grumman F3F

A Brief History Of The Grumman F3F-2

The Grumman F3F was the last American biplane fighter aircraft delivered to the United States Navy, serving between World Wars I and II. It first entered service in 1936 and was retired from the front line in late 1941, before it could ever serve in WWII, evolving instead into the far superior F4F Wildcat.

The F3F-2 series was produced and delivered in its entirety between 1937 and 38; when deliveries ended, all Navy and Marine Corps pursuit squadrons included Grumman single-seat fighters. Further aerodynamic developments culminated in the XF3F-3, notable primarily for its larger-diameter propeller.

With the appearance of the monoplane Brewster F2A-1, the Navy’s biplane fighter days were coming to a close. By the end of 1941, all F3Fs were withdrawn from squadron service, though some continued to be used at naval bases for training and utility purposes for another couple years. Others served as trainers for the U.S. Army Air Force.

An F3F-2 ditched off the coast of San Diego in August of 1940 during an attempted landing was rediscovered almost fifty years later by a navy submarine, recovered, and restored by the San Diego Aerospace Museum, where it is currently on display.

Four other surviving aircraft are still flying: three F3F-2s and one Gulf Oil G-32A, all restored by Herb Tischler’s Fort Worth Texas Airplane Factory. The restorations took four years and were based on original blueprints and new tooling built at the Texas Airplane Factory.