The C-1 Trader grew out of a need by the United States Navy for a new anti-submarine airplane. In response to this Grumman began development on a prototype twin-engine, high-wing aircraft which it designated the G-89. In 1952 the Navy designated this aircraft the XS2F-1 and flew it for the first time on December 4 that year. During the rest of the 1950s three major variants emerged, the C-1 Trader being one of them. The C-1 was outfitted to carry nine passengers or of cargo and first flew in January 1955.
Operational history
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the C-1 Trader carried mail and supplies to aircraft carriers on station in the Pacific Ocean during the Vietnam War and also served as a trainer for all-weather carrier operations. Over its production life 87 C-1 Traders were built, of which four were converted into EC-1A Tracerelectronic countermeasures aircraft. The last C-1 was retired from USN service in 1988; it was the second-to-last radial-engine aircraft in U.S military service. As of 2010, approximately ten were still airworthy in civil hands, operating as warbirds. In 1956 the U.S. Marine Corps Test Unit Number 1 tested the concept of using the TF-1 variant as a vehicle for inserting reconnaissance teams behind enemy lines. “On 9 July 1956 MCTU Recon Marines became the first to parachute from a TF-1. Less than three weeks later, four recon parachutists launched from the USS Bennington, which was 70 miles at sea, and jumped on a desert drop zone near El Centro California, some 100 miles inland. For the first time in Marine Corps and Naval Aviation history, the technique of introducing recon personnel off a carrier sea base to an inland objective had successfully been tested.” In August 2010, Brazilian Naval Aviation announced that it will buy and modernize eight C-1 airframes to serve in carrier onboard delivery and aerial refueling roles for use on its aircraft carrierSão Paulo. In 2011 contract was signed with Marsh Aviation to convert four ex-US Navy C-1A Trader airframes into KC-2 Turbo Traders. The first KC-2 prototype flight is expected for November 2017 and the delivery of the first operational aircraft is scheduled for December 2018.
BuNo 136792 - Quonset Air Museum,, North Kingston, Rhode Island. This aircraft was modified with the Grumman E-1 Tracer-type radome assembly and twin tails and served as the aerodynamic prototype for the E-1. After testing, it reverted to the transport role, with radome removed but retaining the twin tails. Throughout, this aircraft retained the S-2/C-1 upward folding wings, not the E-1 wing fold which were necessitated to fold wings back along the sides of the fuselage.
