North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, the XB-70 bomber, the B-1 Lancer, the Apollo command and service module, the second stage of the Saturn V rocket, and the Space Shuttle orbiter.
Through a series of mergers and sales, North American Aviation became part of North American Rockwell, which later became Rockwell International, and is now part of Boeing.
History
Early years
On December 6, 1928, Clement Melville Keys founded North American as a holding company that bought and sold interests in various airlines and aviation-related companies. However, the Air Mail Act of 1934 forced the breakup of such holding companies. North American became a manufacturing company, run by James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger, who had been recruited from Douglas Aircraft Company. NAA did retain ownership of Eastern Air Lines until 1938.[1]
In 1933, the General Motors Corporation purchased a controlling interest in NAA, and merged it with the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation, but retained the name North American Aviation.[2][3]
Kindelberger moved the company's operations from Dundalk, Maryland to Los Angeles, California, which allowed flying year-round, and decided to focus on training aircraft, on the theory that it would be easier than trying to compete with established companies on larger projects. NAA's first planes were the GA-15 observation plane and the GA-16 trainer, followed by the O-47 and BT-9, also called the GA-16.[1]
World War II
The BC-1 of 1937 was North American's first combat aircraft; it was based on the GA-16.[1] In 1940, like other manufacturers, North American started gearing up for war, opening factories in Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Texas, and Kansas City, Kansas.[1] North American ranked eleventh among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.[4]
North American's follow-on to the BT-9 was the T-6 Texan trainer, of which 17,000 were built, making it the most widely used trainer ever. The twin-engine B-25 Mitchell bomber achieved fame in the Doolittle Raid and was used in all combat theaters of operation. The P-51 Mustang was initially produced for Britain as an alternative to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, which North American had declined to produce under licence.[6][7]
Post-war years
Post-war, North American's employment dropped from a high of 91,000 to 5,000 in 1946. On V-J Day, North American had orders from the U.S. government for 8,000 aircraft. A few months later, that had dropped to 24.[1]
Two years later in 1948, General Motors divested NAA as a public company. Nevertheless, NAA continued with new designs, including the T-28 Trojan trainer and attack aircraft, the F-82 Twin Mustang fighter, B-45 Tornado jet bomber, the FJ Fury fighter, AJ Savage, the revolutionary XB-70 Valkyrie Mach-3 strategic bomber, Shrike Commander, and T-39 Sabreliner business jet.
The Columbus, Ohio, division of North American Aviation was instrumental in the exclusive development and production of the A-5 Vigilante, an advanced high speed attack aircraft that saw significant use as a naval reconnaissance aircraft during the Vietnam War, the OV-10 Bronco, the first aircraft specifically designed for forward air control (FAC), and counter-insurgency (COIN) duties, and the T-2 Buckeye Naval trainer, which would serve from the late 1950s until 2008 and be flown in training by virtually every Naval Aviator and Naval Flight Officer in the US Navy and US Marine Corps for four decades.
Nuclear development
Atomics International was a division of North American Aviation which began as the Atomic Energy Research Department at the Downey plant in 1948. In 1955, the department was renamed Atomics International and engaged principally in the early development of nuclear technology and nuclear reactors for both commercial and government applications. Atomics International was responsible for a number of accomplishments relating to nuclear energy: design, construction and operation of the first nuclear reactor in California (a small aqueous homogeneous reactor located at the NAA Downey plant),[15] the first nuclear reactor to produce power for a commercial power grid in the United States (the Sodium Reactor Experiment located at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory)[16] and the first nuclear reactor launched into outer space by the United States (the SNAP-10A).[17] As overall interest in nuclear power declined, Atomics International transitioned to non-nuclear energy-related projects such as coal gasification and gradually ceased designing and testing nuclear reactors. Atomics International was eventually merged with the Rocketdyne division in 1978.[18]
Navigation and guidance, radar, and data systems
Autonetics began in 1945 at North American's Technical Research Laboratory, a small unit in the Los Angeles Division's engineering department based in Downey, California. The evolution of the Navaho missile program resulted in the establishment of Autonetics as a separate division of North American Aviation in 1955, first located in Downey, later moving to Anaheim, California in 1963. The division was involved in the development of guidance systems for the Minuteman ballistic missile system.
Space program
In 1955, the rocket engine operations were spun off into a separate division as Rocketdyne. This division furnished engines for the Redstone, Jupiter, Thor, Delta, and Atlas missiles, and for NASA's Saturn family of launch vehicles.
North American designed and built the airframe for the X-15, a rocket-powered aircraft that first flew in 1959.
In 1959, North American built the first of several Little Joe boosters used to test the launch escape system for the Project Mercury spacecraft. In 1960, the new CEO Lee Atwood decided to focus on the space program, and the company became the prime contractor for the Apollo command and service module, a larger Little Joe II rocket to test Apollo's launch escape system, and the S-II second stage of the Saturn V.
Merger and acquisition
The fatal Apollo 1 fire in January 1967 was initially blamed on the company in the press, although a congressional hearing later ruled otherwise. In September, it merged with Rockwell-Standard, and the merged company became known as North American Rockwell.[19][20][21] The company continued its involvement with the Apollo program, building the Command and Service modules for all 11 missions. Within two years, the new company also was studying concepts for the Space Shuttle, and won the orbiter contract in 1972.[22] In 1973, the company changed its name again to Rockwell International and named its aircraft division North American Aircraft Operations.[23]
Products
Aircraft
Crewed spacecraft
- Apollo command and service module
- North American DC-3
- Skylab Rescue
- Space Shuttle orbiter
Missiles and rockets
- AGM-28 Hound Dog
- AGM-64 Hornet
- RTV-A-3 NATIV
- SM-64 Navaho
- S-II second stage of the Saturn V
See also
- Norris J. Nelson, Los Angeles City Council member, commenting on 1941 North American strike
Further reading
External links
- Boeing.com: North American Aviation history
- Aerospace Legacy Foundation
- AeroWeb: List of NAA aircraft
- ACME, NAA history: documents and photographs archive.
- Autonetics division
- Bright, Charles D., The Jet Makers: The Aerospace Industry From 1945 to 1972, Lawrence, Kansas: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1978.
References
- Rumerman. Judy. "North American Aviation." United States Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003.^
- Pound, Arthur. "The Turning Wheel; the Story of General Motors Through Twenty-five Years, 1908-1933" Chapter XXIII - General Motors in Aviation^
- April Wortham. Planes, trains were also part of GM's grand plan Automotive News, 14 September 2008, retrieved 21 November 2022^