Grumman Test Pilots

photo courtesy of the Grumman History Center

Taken at Calverton in 1974, this photo shows Grumman Aerospace company test pilots standing in front of Aircraft Number 7, also known at that time as the F-14B.

(Later this same aircraft became known as the Super Tomcat, evaluating the engines for the F-14D).

From left to right are: Jim Johnson, Pete Tummillo, Albert Beck, Chuck Sewell, Bob Smythe, Bill Bassett, Peter Beresford, John McDonnell, Bill Rasmussen, Bill Gordon, Paul Merana, Tom Gwynne, and Don Evans.

This begins a series of articles concerning the many pilots who flight tested Grumman’s line of aircraft from 1930 to 1994. There is no specific order to the personalities we will cover, however, we begin with Bob Smyth who performed first flight on the F-14A. We feel this is appropriate since the F-14 is the centerpiece of Grumman Memorial Park.

Robert K. Smyth, Grumman Test Pilot – Flight No. 24

photo courtesy of the Grumman History Center

Bob Smyth

Bob Smyth was born in New York City on July 17, 1927. After one semester of college, he entered the U.S. Navy in June of 1945. While serving in the U.S. Navy, Bob furthered his college education and entered Naval Flight Training. He graduated in 1948.

Bob was assigned to both fighter and night fighter squadrons flying Grumman F8F Bearcats, Chance Vought F4U Corsairs, and McDonnell F2H Banshees. He graduated U.S. Navy Test Pilot School in 1952, and served as exchange officer with the British Royal Navy flying De Havilland DH-112 Sea Venoms in 1953-54.

In 1955 Bob resigned his commission from the U.S. Navy and accepted a position as an Engineering Test Pilot with the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. He flight-tested the F9F Cougar and F11F Tiger series, and participated in Gulfstream I Test and Certification program from 1955 to 1960.

Bob performed the first flight of the A2F-1 (A-6A) Intruder in April 1960 and continued with the test phase of the program until November 1962. He was then appointed as a consulting pilot and astronaut liaison on the Apollo Lunar Module program. In the spring 1966 he left the LM program and became the project pilot for the Gulfstream II, Grumman’s entry into the corporate jet market. Bob performed first flight on the Gulfstream II in October 1966 and participated with its test and certification program.

In 1967 Bob was appointed Chief Test Pilot for Grumman. Several years later on December 21, 1970, along with fellow Grumman Test Pilot Bill Miller, he performed the first flight of the best fighter aircraft ever produced, the F-14A Tomcat. He also holds the distinction, as well as Bill Miller, as the first crew to eject from an F-14 on December 30 just a little over a week from first flight. In 1972 Bob attended a program for Senior Executives at MIT, and was named Director of Flight Test in 1974. He was also the project pilot for the Gulfstream III, performed first flight in December 1979, and continued with its test and certification program.

Bob left Grumman in 1981 and joined the Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation in Savannah, Georgia as Director of Flight Operations. In 1985 he was promoted to Vice President of Flight Ops and Quality Control. Bob also participated in most of the Gulfstream III and IV record setting flights around world, over the poles, etc.

Some of Bob’s accomplishments in aviation include certified Airline Transport Pilot (G-I, II, III, and IV), and single engine land, multi-engine land and sea aircraft. He is a Fellow of Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and was elected to the Carrier Test Pilots Hall of Honor, on board USS Yorktown, Charleston, SC in 1991.

In June of 1993, Bob retired from the Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. He currently resides in Ocala, Florida.

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J. Thomas Gwynne, Grumman Test Pilot – Flight No. 72

photo courtesy of the Grumman History Center

Tom Gwynne

Tom Gwynne was born and raised on Staten Island, New York. He attended the Staten Island Academy and subsequently Brown University where he graduated with a B.A. degree majoring in International Relations.

Following graduation from Brown University, Tom was commissioned an officer in the United States Air Force and attended pilot training in Alabama. He served as an F-4 Phantom fighter pilot for six years, including a combat tour in Vietnam where he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses and ten Air Medals.

Tom left the Air Force and on January 27, 1969 joined the Grumman Corporation as a consultant on the Apollo Program. In 1972 he joined the Flight Test Department in Calverton and spent the next 15 years as a pilot for Grumman’s tactical aircraft production line, test flying the F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder, EA-6B Prowler, EF-111 Raven, OV-1 Mohawk, and Gulfstream III aircraft.

On July 6, 1979, Tom performed first flight on F-14A (160902) shop number 331, the very aircraft that has become the centerpiece of Grumman Memorial Park.

In 1989 Tom was appointed Director of Flight Operations at Calverton and held that position until 1994 when left to become Operations Manager for Grumman’s St. Augustine, Florida facility. He retired from Northrop Grumman in early 1997.

Tom returned to New York and in July of 1997 was appointed Senior Planning Manager for the Cradle of Aviation Museum at Mitchel Field, New York. The museum was closed for several years and Tom guided it through its expansion and major renovations. Prior to the grand opening on May 20, 2002, Tom was appointed Vice President for External Relations for the Cradle of Aviation Museum.

All of us at Grumman Memorial Park wish both the "Cradle" and Tom all the best.

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Corwin H. Meyer, Grumman Test Pilot – Flight No. 25

photo courtesy of the Grumman History Center

Corky Meyer

Corky Meyer was born on April 14, 1920 in Springfield, Illinois. After High School he attended the University of Illinois and went on to M.I.T. Corky received his flight training and obtained his commercial, instructor, instrument and multi-engine ratings from the Civilian Pilot Training Program in
1940 – 42.

After working as a trainee for Pan American Airways, Corky joined Grumman in 1942 and soon became the project pilot for the F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat, F9F Panther, XF10F-1 Jaguar, and the F11F Tiger series.

He has flown many of the high-performance aircraft made in the 1940s including a Japanese A6M Zero.

In 1947 Corky performed first flight of the XF9F-2 Panther, Grumman’s first jet fighter. He was head of Grumman Flight Operations at Edwards Air Force Base from 1952-56. In 1954 he became the first civilian pilot to qualify aboard an aircraft carrier, when he landed aboard USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) flying an F9F-6 Cougar.

In 1967 Corky was elected Vice President of the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation guiding the company through its many reorganizations. In 1969 he was elected to the board of directors of the Grumman Aerospace Corporation, and in 1972 became senior Vice President of GAC. In 1974 Corky became President and CEO of Grumman American, a commercial aircraft subsidiary. Before he retired from his 36-year career with Grumman in 1978 Corky had tested and evaluated more than 125 different types of both military and commercial jet and piston-engine aircraft. He continued his career in aviation as president and CEO of the Enstrom Helicopter Corporation and later Falcon Jet Corporation.

Corky was inducted into the Carrier Aviation Test Pilots Hall of Honor at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston, South Carolina in 1995. On May 9, 1997, at a banquet held at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida, he was named Honorary Naval Aviator No. 23.

His other achievements include being a founding member, as well as a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (and accepting the James H. Doolittle Award in 1971), an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Wright Stuff Association – Wright Field World War Two Test Pilots Association, the Early and Pioneer Naval Aviators Association of Golden Eagles, and the Aerospace Walk of Honor.

Corky is enjoying his retirement from his over 50 years of test flying and currently resides in Ocala, Florida.

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Charles A. "Chuck" Sewell, Grumman Test Pilot – Flight No. 02

photo courtesy of the Grumman History Center

Chuck Sewell in his "office":
the cockpit of an F-14

Born in 1930 Chuck Sewell attended the College of William and Mary, George Washington University, University of Maryland and New York Institute of Technology.

He spent twenty years in the United States Marine Corps first as a fighter pilot and then as a test pilot. Chuck flew 110 combat missions in Korea and was shot down once by enemy ground fire. He also spent four months with the First Marine Division as a forward air controller. After Korea he became an exchange pilot with No. 74 Squadron, Royal Air Force and spent two years as a Flight Commander. 

Chuck also flew with the Red Arrows, England’s Premier Air Demonstration Team. Upon return to the US, Chuck attended the US Navy Test Pilot’s School and spent four years at the Naval Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland. During the Vietnam War, he commanded a US Marine Corps squadron of F-4
Phantoms and flew 220 missions over North and South Vietnam as well as Laos. Chuck retired from the Marine Corps in 1969 as a Lt. Colonel with the following decorations: Legion of Merit with Combat "V", two Distinguished Flying Crosses, fifteen Air Medals, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.

Chuck joined the Grumman Corporation in 1969 as an Experimental Test Pilot based at the Calverton Flight Test Facility. In 1971 he was appointed to the position of Grumman’s Chief Test Pilot.

During his career with Grumman, Chuck flew almost every type of production aircraft including the A-6 Intruder series, EA-6B Prowler, EF-111A Raven and X-29 Forward swept wing aircraft, performing first flight at Edwards AFB in 1984. However, Chuck Sewell is probably best remembered for his association with the testing of the F-14 Tomcat. Many flight regimes were explored by Chuck, but one that deserves mentioning is the series of asymmetrical wing sweep tests on F-14 No. 3 from December 19, 1985 to February 28, 1986. By keeping one wing at full forward position and the other in various sweep modes he proved that the Tomcat could perform under these peculiar conditions. This aircraft is presently on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Mitchel Field. On many occasions Grumman’s president, George Skurla could be found sitting back seat in F-14 #7 with Chuck at the controls. Chuck’s other accomplishments include being a Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and former head of the SETP Flight Test Committee. He was a holder of the Ivan Kincheloe Award for Test Pilot of the Year from the SETP in 1973 and again in 1984. Chuck also won the Best Technical Paper of the Year Award from STEP in 1979, 1982 and 1983. In 1974 he was the winner of the Octave Chanute Award form the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and in 1983 was awarded the Lawrence B. Sperry Award from the US Air Force Association in 1981.

Chuck’s love of flying went beyond high-performance military jets. He had more than 10,000 hours in over 140 types of aircraft. Flying vintage World War Two aircraft was a favorite of Chuck’s. However tragedy struck when on August 4, 1986 Chuck was killed in a crash of a friend’s Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber while attempting to take off from Connecticut en route to Florida. Incompatible fuel was determined as the cause of the accident.

Chuck left behind a legacy at Grumman, as well as many of the employees who admired him and called him friend.

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Samuel M. "Pete" Purvis, Grumman Test Pilot – Flight No. 10


photo courtesy of Pete Purvis

Pete Purvis

Pete Purvis was born on December 1, 1934 in Cleveland, Ohio where his first exposure to aviation came while sitting atop the family 1937 Ford watching the Cleveland Air Races.  After high school, and a year at Dartmouth College, he spent the next four years at the U.S. Naval Academy where he encountered his first Grumman aircraft and had his first taste of carrier aviation while, rolled up in the bowels beneath the aft turret of a COD version of the TBF Avenger.

Upon graduating from USNA in 1957 Navy flight training beckoned. Pete flew his first Grumman aircraft, an S2F-1 Tracker while assigned to VS-32 at NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island.  He soon decided that there was more to flying than chugging along at 100 feet, day or night, over the roiling North Atlantic.  After racking up 1,500 hours in the S-2 and over 200 straight-deck carrier landings on board USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39), he was selected to attend the US Navy Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland. Purvis was one of the first two of his USNA classmates to do so and graduating with Class XXXII in October 1962 opened new vistas.  Assigned to the Service Test Division at the Naval Air Test Center Pete flew just about everything in sight while maintaining currency in six different aircraft ranging from the Lockheed P-2 and P-3 to the Grumman A-6 and Vought F-8. 

One of his most interesting projects was the Skyhook Covert Aerial Retriever System invented by Robert Fulton, who was a direct descendant of the steamboat inventor.  He achieved several firsts for Skyhook, such as the first live pickup at night and the first simultaneous snatch of two people.  His work with Skyhook formed the solid technical base for later Skyhook Surface To Air Recovery System (STARS) programs undertaken by the U.S. Air Force for the HC-130H.

After serving three years at NATC, it was Pete back to on the North Atlantic as the Assistant Navigator of USS Randolph (CVS -15) until his 1966 assignment to VF-151 F-4 Phantoms at NAS Miramar where he compiled, and 101 combat missions with VF-151in the McDonnell F-4.  In 1968 Pete resigned his commission to join Westinghouse in Baltimore as an engineering test pilot but in 1971, Grumman called and asked offered him if the opportunity to become he wanted to be an F-14 experimental test pilot at NAS Point Mugu, California.  His answer was obvious. Among the various programs being tested at Point Mugu, Pete was intimately involved in missile separation tests, where he achieved brief notoriety in 1973 by being shot down by the Sparrow missile he had just launched (See “The Day I Shot Myself Down,” in April 2001 issue of Flight Journal magazine).

By early 1975, flight test activity at Point Mugu had waned, so Pete joined Grumman International as Director of Washington Operations and in 1981 he became affiliated with Tracor Aerospace. He changed course in 1988 to become the vice president for privatization for Hannon Armstrong & Company, a boutique investment-banking firm specializing in government project finance and leasing.  The recession of the early ‘90s and fading government projects required another course change back to aerospace where he has worked as a consultant since 1993. 

Pete remained in the Naval Reserve, retiring as a Captain in 1987 after four commands, including that of an RF-8 photoreconnaissance squadron.  He is an Associate Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, former chairman of its East Coast Section, and trustee of the Association of Naval Aviation.

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Don Evans, Grumman Test Pilot – Flight No. 8

photo courtesy of the Grumman History Center

Don Evans

Donald Lee Evans was born in 1927 and raised on a ranch in Montana.

He joined the Army Air Corps in 1945 at age 18. Though lacking a high school diploma, he was accepted into the newly formed United States Air Force Aviation Cadet program in 1948. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant, USAF, as well as his wings, in 1950. Flying combat missions in Korea in both North American Aviation F-86 Sabres and Lockheed F-80s, (and getting shot down once) Don won the Distinguished Flying Cross and subsequently an Oak Leaf Cluster to go with it. Don is also credited with a Mig kill.

His application for test pilot training in the Air Force was initially rejected because of his lack of an academic background. Don spent seven years attending night school to get the high school diploma and engineering background he needed. He was accepted for Air Force test pilot training in the in 1959.
Don flew many types of aircraft found in Air Force inventory at the time, including the Lockheed U-2.

After retiring from the Air Force, Don joined Grumman in 1967 and test flew many of Grumman’s production aircraft including the A-6A Intruder, right up until his retirement in 1991. Don is best remembered for his contributions to the F-14 program, opening up most of the structural envelope for the Tomcat, along with Dennis Romano in the back seat. He was the first person to depart in an F-14 and recover it. That particular
F-14, shop number 3, and the oldest surviving Tomcat in the world, is currently on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York with Don and Dennis’s names painted on the canopy frame.

In 1972, along with Dennis Romano in the back seat, Don demonstrated the F-14 at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland to the Shah of Iran who was also considering purchasing the United States Air Force’s McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle. The Air Force demonstrated first, but when Don put the F-14 through it’s paces, and quite possibly gave the best F-14 demonstration ever flown, the Shah informed President Nixon he would like to purchase 80 Tomcats.

He was also an instructor pilot training aircrews in the operation of F-14 for the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF).

Don retired from Grumman in 1991 and relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. Sadly, he passed away at age 67 in June 1994 of cancer.

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