Grumman's flight test program suffered a setback on November 28 when an in-flight fire in the bomb bay forced the test pilot and engineer to abandon the prototype. Fortunately the second prototype was nearly complete. The second prototype made its first flight on December 15, 1941 and coming so soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was christened the Avenger. Flight tests continued until December 28, 1942 when the Navy officially accepted the design and changed the production contract from 286 to an open ended production contract.

By Charles Scrivner