While maintaining the business by welding aluminum tubing for truck frames, the company eagerly pursued contracts with the US Navy.

Grumman products were prominent in several feature movies including The Final Countdown in 1980,[8] Top Gun in 1986, and Flight of the Intruder in 1990.

[10] Grumman was the chief contractor on the Apollo Lunar Module, the first spacecraft to land humans on the Moon.

[12] As the Apollo program neared its end, Grumman was one of the main competitors for the contract to design and build the Space Shuttle, but lost to Rockwell International.

The company built the Grumman LLV (Long Life Vehicle), a light transport mail truck designed for and used by the United States Postal Service.

Gulfstream aircraft were operated by many companies, private individuals, and government agencies including various military entities and NASA.

In the early 1970s, Grumman acquired majority interest in the American Aviation line of very light aircraft -- relabeling its planes as "Grumman-American" or "Grumman American" -- eventually joining it with their Gulfstream division before selling off that combined enterprise in 1978.

At its peak in 1986 it employed 23,000 people on Long Island[21] and occupied 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) in structures on 105 acres (0.42 km2) it leased from the U.S. Navy in Bethpage.