Lois Lovisolo of the Grumman History Center gave me an introduction to Herb Tischler of the Texas Airplane Factory located at Meacham Field, Fort Worth. He was in the process of constructing three Grumman F3F-2's and one Model G-23A two place airplanes. As you will see in the accompanying photos, Herb and his crew are master builders.

Original 1936 drawings were obtained from the Grumman history center. Some original remains of three pre-war F3F's were of help checking against the drawings. In the summer before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, three F3F's took off from a carrier for night operations. All three got lost and crashed into the side of a volcano on Hawaii.

The few changes that were made to comply with modern rules. The original brakes and wheels were replaced with disc brakes. The Wright Cyclone 1820-22 950HP engine was changed to an 1820 of 1050HP version. If a Grumman built and a Tischler built plane were side by side, you would be pressed to tell them apart.

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© 2004 The Long Island Early Fliers Club, P.O. Box 221, Bethpage, NY 11714-0221 • info@longislandearlyfliers.org