Scouting Squadron 3B (VS-3B) SF-1 aircraft photos

[Bob Hudson]

Picked up a small photo yesterday of what appears to be a squadron of Navy Grumman SF-1's in the pre-WWII era, probably early 1930's. This was the scouting version of FF fighter. These aircraft were from VS-3B the Lexington's "Indian Chiefs" Scouting squadron.. From what I can gather, only 34 SF-1's were produced and they were withdrawn from regular service in 1936 and placed with reserve units. I would assume photos of an SF-1 squadron in flight are scarce, based on the few number produced.

 

[Bob Hudson]

The website at http://www.historicaircraft.org/Navy-Aircraft/index_3.html has some great shots of vintage Navy planes, including a few of the Grumman SF-1.

 

 

The SF-1 was a two-seater and basically was an FF-1 with larger fuel tanks. The FF-1 was Grumman's first design for the Navy and in fact the first complete aircraft produced by the company. Both of these aircraft had a bulbous belly to accommodate the retractable landing gear:

 

 

 

The FF-1/SF-1 evolved into the single seat (and skinnier) F2F and then the F3F fighters. Here's a photo I found a year ago, showing F3F's from VF-4 in formation over what I suspect is San Diego County in 1938 (this was an official Navy photo so it was dated on the back).

 

 

There were 55 F2F's produced, 147 F3F's, 120 FF-1's and only 34 of the SF-1's so the photo of the VS-3B planes above shows about 17 percent of the entire production of SF-1's.

 

It's amazing to look at these biplanes and then consider the massive evolution in Navy fighters that occurred in the following decade: an evolution not just in design but quantity: there were 12,571 F4U Corsairs produced!

[Charlie Flick]

Great photos, FS. It is very easy to see the Grumman family design history in the succeeding aircraft.

 

Charlie

[Bob Hudson]

Great photos, FS. It is very easy to see the Grumman family design history in the succeeding aircraft.

 

Charlie

 

I had thought the SF-1 photo was another F3F photo until I started trying to figure out why a scouting squadron had a fighter assigned to ir (for those who don't know, the middle letter of the aircraft number represented the type of squadron, S for scouting, F for fighter, and the first number was the squadron number). It took me a couple hours to finally stumble across the somewhat obscure SF-1.

 

Scouting Squadron VS-3B is interesting in its own right. Among its former pilots was Lt. Cmdr. John Charles Waldron who led Torpedo Squadron 8 at the Battle of Midway. Only one of the 30 men in that squadron survived. Waldron received the Navy Cross posthumously.

 

I found out that in 1935 VS-3B on the Lexington had 18 of the SF-1's and two squadrons on the Saratoga each had one SF-1, but it appears that VS-3B was the only fleet squadron ever fully equipped with the SF-1 and their sister fighter squadron on the Lexington, VF-5B, was the only fleet squadron equipped with the FF-1. By 1937 there no SF-1's assigned to the carrier air groups and VS-3B had become VS-2 flying the Vought SBU-1 Corsair. In 1942 Scouting Squadron 2 was in the Battle of the Coral Sea flying still from the Lexington.

[Bob Hudson]

I found some more information on the insignia on the side of the VS-3B squadron planes:

 

 

It's an "Indian chief" and was later used by VS-2 after VS-3B was renamed in 1937