Grumman G-21 Goose

The Grumman G-21 Goose is an amphibious flying boat designed by Grumman as an eight-seat commuter aircraft for businessmen in the Long Island area. The Goose was Grumman's first monoplane to fly, its first twin-engined aircraft, and its first aircraft to enter commercial airline service. During World War II, the Goose became an effective transport for the US military (including the United States Coast Guard), as well as serving with many other air forces. During hostilities, the Goose took on an increasing number of combat and training roles.

Design and development

thumb|Preserved ex-British JRF-6B Goose in U.S. Navy JRF-1 markings

In 1936, a group of wealthy residents of Long Island, including E. Roland Harriman, approached Grumman and commissioned an aircraft that they could use to fly to New York City. In response, the Grumman Model G-21 was designed as a light amphibious transport. Grumman produced a high-wing monoplane of almost all-metal construction—the trailing half of the main wing and all of the flight control surfaces except for the flaps were fabric-covered. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engines mounted on the leading edges of the wings. The deep fuselage served also as a hull and was equipped with hand-cranked retractable landing gear. First flight of the prototype took place on May 29, 1937.

The fuselage also proved versatile, as it provided generous interior space that allowed fitting for either a transport or luxury airliner role. Having an amphibious configuration also allowed the G-21 to go just about anywhere, and plans were made to market it as an amphibian airliner.

Modifications

thumb|McKinnon G-21G Turbo Goose conversion with [[Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 turboprops]]

A number of modifications were made for the Goose, but the most numerous are those by McKinnon Enterprises of Sandy, Oregon, which holds 21 supplemental type certificates (STCs) for modifying G-21-series aircraft and which also manufactured four different conversions that were recertified under a separate FAA type certificate as brand-new "McKinnon" airplanes. The first was the McKinnon model G-21C which involved replacing the original R-985 radial engines with four Lycoming GSO-480-B2D6 piston engines. It was approved under TC 4A24 on November 7, 1958, and two examples were converted in 1958–1959.

New production

In November 2007, Antilles Seaplanes of Gibsonville, North Carolina, announced it was restarting production of the turbine-powered McKinnon G-21G Turbo Goose variant, now identified as the Antilles G-21G Super Goose.

Operational history

thumb|A Grumman Goose on the water

thumb|[[Royal Canadian Air Force Goose]]

thumb|Alaska Island Air G-21A in 1989

Envisioned as corporate or private flying yachts for Manhattan millionaires, initial production models normally carried two to three passengers and had a bar and small toilet installed. In addition to being marketed to small air carriers, the G-21 was also promoted as a military transport. In 1938, the U.S. Army Air Corps purchased the type as the OA-9 (later, in the war years, examples impressed from civilian ownership were designated the OA-13A). The most numerous of the military versions were the United States Navy variants, designated the JRF.

The amphibious aircraft was also adopted by the Coast Guard and, during World War II, served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the transport, reconnaissance, rescue, and training roles. The G-21 was used for air-sea rescue duties by the Fleet Air Arm, who assigned the name Goose. A single aircraft was used briefly by No. 1 Air Ambulance Unit, Royal Australian Air Force in the Mediterranean.[21]

After the war, the Goose found continued commercial use in locations from Alaska to Catalina and the Caribbean.

A total of 345 were built, with about 30 known to still be airworthy today (although around 60 are still on various civil registries, many of them are known to have crashed or been otherwise destroyed), most being in private ownership, some of them operating in modified forms.

Variants

;G-21

:The original production version, these were powered by two Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior SB engines, at gross weight, with six passengers, and 12 were built, all converted to G-21A standards.

;

:Increased gross weight (), 30 built.

;G-21B

:Export coastal patrol flying boat armed with machine gun in bow and dorsal hatches and two bombs underwing, 12 built for Portuguese Naval Aviation.

;G-21D

:One G-21C was further converted by McKinnon with an extended nose marked by two extra windows on each side and accommodating another four passengers. Recertified as G-21D in 1960. In 1966, it was re-engined with two PT6A-20 turboprops and fitted with revised Alvarez-Calderon electric flaps in accordance with STC SA1320WE, retaining the G-21D designation, but subsequently identified as the McKinnon "Turboprop Goose".

;G-21E

:A fully certified new model, it was based on a simplified turbine conversion of the McKinnon G-21C, with PT6A-20 engines ( Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 engines optional) and more fuel, but without all of the structural reinforcements of the G-21C. gross weight. One converted.

thumb|The sole Kaman K-16B tilt-wing STOL research aircraft

;Kaman K-16B

:Experimental tilt wing aircraft, with JRF-5 fuselage powered by two General Electric YT58-GE-2A engines; one built but not flown.

;XJ3F-1

:Prototype eight-seat utility amphibian, built for the US Navy; one built in 1938.

;JRF-1

:Production XJ3F-1, five built for US Navy.

;JRF-4

:Similar to JRF-1A, these could carry two underwing depth bombs. Ten built for US Navy.

;JRF-5G

:24 JRF-5s transferred to the US Coast Guard.

;OA-13B

:Two JRF-5s transferred to the USAAF.

;Goose Mk.IA

:British designation for 44 JRF-6Bs, supplied under Lend Lease for observer training by the 749 Naval Air Squadron in Trinidad.

;

Royal Australian Air Force
A single aircraft was used briefly by No. 1 Air Ambulance Unit RAAF in the Mediterranean.

;

Bolivian Air Force
At least two aircraft (one JRF-2 and one JRF-6B) received in 1942.

;

10 used for anti-submarine patrols during Second World War.

;

Indonesian Air Force

;

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

;

Paraguayan Naval Aviation

;

Peruvian Air Force

;

Portuguese Naval Aviation
Portuguese Air Force

;

Swedish Air Force

;

Royal Air Force (several impressed examples by 24 Squadron and ATA)
Royal Navy (44 Lend Lease examples)

;

United States Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Forces
United States Navy
United States Coast Guard

Civil Government operators

;

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management each operated several G-21 aircraft.

;

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Civil operators

thumb|[[British Guiana Airways Grumman Goose circa 1955. Piarco Airport, Trinidad.]]

;

Asiatic Petroleum

;

British Guiana Airways

;

Pacific Coastal Airlines
Wilderness Seaplanes

;

European Coastal Airlines

;

Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij

;

Yaukuve Resort

;

Loftleiðir

;

Airfast Indonesia
Merpati Nusantara Airlines – Leased a Goose from Indonesian Air Force.
SAATAS-East Indonesia
Alaska Coastal Airlines
Alaska Coastal-Ellis Airlines
Alaska Island Air
Alaska Fish and Game
Amphib. Inc.
Antilles Air Boats
Avalon Air Transport
Catalina Air
Catalina Channel Airlines
Chevron of California
Devcon Construction
Flight Data Inc.
Ford Motor Co.
Gulf Oil
Kodiak Airways
Kodiak Western
North Coast Aero
Ozark Management
Pan Air
PenAir
Reeve Aleutian Airways
SouthEast Skyways
Superior Oil
Sun Oil Co. (Sunoco)
Teufel Nurseries
The Texas Company (Texaco)
Tuthill Corporation
Virgin Islands Seaplane Shuttle
Webber Airlines

Accidents and incidents

;19 November 1943: Grumman JRF-2 of Port Heiden, Alaska (USCG), crashed with three crewmen and one passenger missing. It was found in 1987.

;13 March 1947: A Grumman JRF-6B of Loftleiðir with a pilot and seven passengers crashed immediately after takeoff on Hvammsfjörður by the town of Búðardalur in Iceland. The pilot and four passengers evacuated the plane and were rescued by a boat, but one of those passengers later died. Three of the original seven passengers died in the crash.

;21 August 1958: N720 crashed in the Brooks Range, near the upper Ivishak River, in Alaska, killing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agents Clarence J. Rhode and Stanley Fredericksen, and Clarence's son Jack. The crash site was not found until August 23, 1979.

;27 January 1961: A JRF-5 of the French Navy crashed, killing Admiral Pierre Ponchardier and five others. This accident led the French Navy to retire all of their Grumman JRF-5 Gooses in the spring of 1961.

;30 July 1971: One person was killed and one was injured when a Grumman G-21A taking off from the airport in Greenville, Maine experienced engine malfunction during takeoff. The NTSB determined the probable cause to be the pilot's lack of familiarity with the plane and fuel mismanagement.

;22 June 1972

: N1513V of Reeve Aleutian Airways was written off at False Pass, Alaska.

;25 August 1978: All 11 people aboard a Webber Airlines seaplane were killed when the Grumman Goose crashed on as it was preparing to land at Labouchere Bay on Prince of Wales Island after a flight from Ketchikan, Alaska.

;2 September 1978: Charles F. Blair Jr., former Naval Air Transport Service and Pan American Airways pilot and husband to actress Maureen O'Hara, was flying a Grumman Goose that belonged to his company, Antilles Air Boats, from St. Croix to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands when it crashed into the ocean due to failure of the left engine. He and three passengers were killed; seven passengers were severely injured.

;24 July 1984: Grumman Goose G-21A, Serial # B-114, Registration: N 2021 A, Hal’s Air Service, Piloted by Hal Dierich, Four Fatalities including pilot. Collision with water in the narrow strait NW of Monashka Bay near Ouzinkie, Kodiak Island, AK.

;15 February 2005: A 1939 Grumman Goose G-21A, registered N-327, crashed around 9:30 am in a field on Route 14A near Penn Yan, New York after an engine failure simulation went wrong. The plane fell rapidly, with the left wing hitting the ground first, before the badly damaged plane burst into flames on impact. Pilots Paul and Daryl Middlebrook, both of Penn Yan, escaped serious injury. The plane, originally owned by the Peruvian Air Force, had starred in the 1980s ABC television series Tales of the Gold Monkey as Cutter's Goose.

;3 August 2008: A Grumman Goose of Pacific Coastal Airlines with seven passengers and crew crashed during a flight from Port Hardy to Chamiss Bay. The aircraft was completely destroyed by fire. There were only two survivors.

;16 November 2008: A Grumman Goose of Pacific Coastal Airlines with eight passengers and crew crashed on South Thormanby Island near Sechelt off British Columbia's Sunshine Coast in bad weather during a flight from Vancouver International Airport to Toba Inlet, BC. Only one passenger survived. The company resumed floatplane operations on November 19, 2008.

;27 February 2011: A turbine Goose, N221AG, crashed in the United Arab Emirates when it veered immediately after takeoff.

;17 June 2014: A Grumman G-21A Goose lost control in a snowstorm over the Montana/Idaho border and crashed into the parking lot of the Lost Trail Ski Area near the summit of Lost Trail Pass, subsequently catching fire. The plane was completely destroyed, and the pilot, who was the only occupant of the plane, was killed.

;18 December 2023: A Grumman Goose operated by Wilderness Seaplanes crashed shortly after takeoff from Bella Bella, British Columbia on its way to Port Hardy, British Columbia. The plane was transporting the pilot and four fish farm workers. All survived with minor injuries.

Aircraft on display

;Canada

B-77 – G-21A in storage at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.

;Indonesia

PB-521 – G-21A on static display at Suryadarma Air Force Base in Subang Regency, West Java.

;Sweden

37810 – JRF-5 under restoration for static display at the Swedish Air Force Museum in Linköping, Östergötland.

;United States

1048 – G-21A on static display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.
1086 – G-21A on static display at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.
1157 – G-21A under restoration for static display at the Tongass Historical Society in Ketchikan, Alaska.
B-102 – G-21A on display at the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage, Alaska.
B-122 – G-21A on static display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.
B-130 – G-21A on static display at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Project in Brooklyn, New York.
Reproduction – G-21A on static display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York.

Specifications (JRF-5 Goose)

thumb|3-view line drawing of the Grumman JRF-5 Goose

Media appearances

Notes

Bibliography

Ablitzer, Fabrice. "Round-Out". Air Enthusiast, No. 79, January/February 1999. p. 79. .
Donald, David, ed. American Warplanes of World War II. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1995. .
Francillon, René J. and Gary L. Killion. "Sauce for the Goose – turbine style". Air International, July 1993, Vol. 45, No 1, pp. 53–57. Stamford, UK:Key Publishing. ISSN 0306-5634.
Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Five Flying Boats. London:Macdonald, 1968. .
March, Daniel J., ed. British Warplanes of World War II. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1998. .
Niccoli, Riccardo. "Pottuguese Numerology: Serial systems used by the Aeronautica Militar and the Força Aerea Portuguesa". Air Enthusiast, May–June 1998, No. 75. pp. 33–40. .
Swanborough, Gordon and Peter M. Bowers. United States Navy Aircraft since 1911. London: Putnam, Second edition, 1976. .
Thruelsen, Richard. The Grumman Story. New York: Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1976. .
Winchester, Jim, ed. "Grumman Goose/Mallard." Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes (The Aviation Factfile). Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2004. .

External links

Goose Central database