Northrop Grumman
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Grumman Aircraft Company was founded in 1930 by Leroy Grumman, Jake Swirbul, Ed Poor, et al., and in 1994 was acquired by with Northrop. Ed Poor was the company's first treasurer.
As World War II approached, Swirbul's contacts in the US Navy kept Grumman's production lines running, and his scalable management style is credited with Grumman's ability to ramp up production faster than any other company when war broke out and to maintain higher profit margins than any other aircraft company throughout the war. [1]
Grumman was the first company to produce a military aircraft with retractable landing gear, a feature which reduced air friction enough to enable the FF-I biplane to reach 198 MPH. [2]