Scope and Content Note
The papers of Grover Cleveland Loening (1888-1976) span the years 1900-1975, with the bulk of material dating from 1913 to 1962. The collection documents Loening's career as an aircraft engineer, manufacturer, businessman, and consultant. The papers are in English and arranged in seven series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Clippings, Photographs, Scrapbooks, Additions, and Oversize.
The General Correspondence series documents the development of Loening's interest in aviation while a student at Columbia University; his early employment with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, the Aviation Section of the United States Army Signal Corps, and the Sturtevant Aeroplane Company; and the subsequent establishment of his own aircraft companies. The series includes letters from Wilbur and Orville Wright as well as Loening's correspondence as chief engineer for the Wright Aeronautical Corporation which discusses many aspects of the company's work from 1913 to 1914. There are numerous letters to and from Richard Evelyn Byrd between 1925 and 1930, many regarding Byrd's first Antarctic expedition. Other correspondents include Winthrop W. Aldrich, Vincent Astor, Ira Eaker, Harry Hopkins, Joseph P. Kennedy, Andrew W. Mellon, William Mitchell, Eddie Rickenbacker, Winthrop Rockefeller, Igor Ivan Sikorsky, and Harold S. Vanderbilt.
The Subject File contains patents, drawings, reports, and promotional literature pertaining to a number of Loening's aircraft designs, most notably his amphibian planes. The series also includes material relating to various consulting contracts following his retirement as president of the Grover Loening Aircraft Company in 1938. Many of Loening's articles and speeches are included in the Subject File, along with drafts and related correspondence concerning Monoplanes and Biplanes, Loening's master's thesis; Military Aeroplanes, a military training manual; and Our Wings Grow Faster. Additional speeches and writings can be found in the 1957 Addition, 1996 Addition, and 2022 Addition.
The collection includes a large Photograph series depicting the construction and testing of aircraft designed by Loening and others. A Clippings file, dating primarily from the mid-1920s, and twenty-five scrapbooks deal with almost every aspect of aeronautical interest as well as Loening's own company. The scrapbooks cover the years 1918-1922, 1928-1933, and 1937-1941 and include clippings on Richard Evelyn Byrd's expedition and material on Charles A. Lindbergh.
The 1996 Addition largely concerns Loening's career after 1942. The bulk of the addition consists of a chronological file containing correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, photographs, clippings, and other printed matter. Much of this material concerns Loening's activities as a consultant for the United States government and private industry. His appointments to the War Production Board, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, President's Air Policy Commission, and the National Air Museum Advisory Board are well documented. Significant amounts of material concern Loening's involvement with All American Aviation, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, New York Airways, Pan American Airways Corporation, and Platt-LePage Aircraft Corporation. A small subject file relates to a number of these activities in addition to Loening's investigation of early helicopter design and production.
The 2022 Addition includes correspondence on various aviation topics. Letters between Charles M. Manly, Charles D. Walcott, and Orville Wright provide insight into the Smithsonian Institution and Orville Wright's dispute over the Wright Flyer. Letters between Loening and Samuel Reber relate to Loening's work with the United States Army Signal Corps in San Diego, California, and letters between Loening and John A. Macready discuss a transpacific flight. Other correspondents in the general correspondence include Henry Harley Arnold, Ira Eaker, John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, and Igor Ivan Sikorsky. The addition also contains documentation about the patent infringement suit relating to the Sikorsky S-43 landing gear, Loening's noncommercial pilot's license issued in 1935, Loening's prepared testimony about the amphibian plane for William Mitchell's court-martial, and a few Wright brothers patents.