North American Aviation

On December 6, 1928, financier Clement Melville Keys founded North American Aviation as a holding company. The Air Mail Act of 1934 forced a pivot: NAA became a manufacturer, and General Motors installed James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger as president. He moved operations from Maryland to Los Angeles, and the company began designing its own aircraft. The first was the NA-16 trainer, which evolved into the T-6 Texan, over 15,000 were built, training Allied pilots for World War II.

World War II made NAA a household name. The P-51 Mustang, designed in just 117 days, became the war's premier long-range fighter, escorting bombers over Germany. The B-25 Mitchell, used in the Doolittle Raid, proved a rugged medium bomber. By 1945, NAA was one of the "Big Three" American aircraft manufacturers alongside Boeing and Douglas, employing over 90,000 people at its peak during the war.

In the jet age, NAA produced the F-86 Sabre, which dominated MiGs over Korea with a 10:1 kill ratio, and the F-100 Super Sabre, the first supersonic U.S. Air Force fighter. The company also built the X-15 rocket plane, which hit Mach 6.7 and climbed to 354,200 feet, and the XB-70 Valkyrie, a Mach 3 bomber prototype. NAA's Rocketdyne division developed the H-1 engine for the Saturn V, and the company built the Apollo command module that carried astronauts to the Moon, including the ill-fated Apollo 13.

NAA merged with Rockwell-Standard in 1967 to become North American Rockwell. After further mergers, Boeing acquired the aerospace assets in 1996 for $3.1 billion. Today, NAA's legacy flies on in restored warbirds, museum exhibits like the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and the T-38 Talon trainers still used by the U.S. Air Force.[edit]