What a great historical summary of SoCal aviation history! I recently drove by the old Douglas plant in Long Beach and noticed the "Fly DC Jets" sign on the South side of Lakewood Blvd still there and lighted up at night. I guess Mercedes Benz took over that building. Weird seeing all the new German cars parked under it. Thanks for you channel and sharing all of your knowledge!!
Great videos, Mike! As a child we lived on the shores of Lake Washington and could see Boeing’s Renton Field from our home. This was the plant that built the B-29 and was camouflaged during the war. Mostly 737’s but the occasional Boeing hydrofoil could be seen during my time there. My father was a machinist and later a computer programmer for Boeing until he retired in the mid 90’s. 👍
Mike..... Another great segment. I can only imagine how busy it must have been during war time round the clock production. It reminds me of the scene from the movie "Best Years Of Our Lves" where Dana Andrews is walking through row after row of aircraft mostly airacobras and removed radial engines and props at first until he finds B-17's where he goes inside to re-live his wartime memories. Shame all those aircraft are all just about gone. Those years must have been a great time to experience in the evolution of aviation. Great video.!! John...
One of my fondest aviation memories was of watching the factory-new F-106's blast off from Lindbergh Field here in San Diego. Thanks for the great presenation, Mike.
Mr. Machat, you involuntarily forgot the Downey factory, first occupied by Vultee and later by North American. How about a revised version of this fantastic video incuding it? And if you decide so, may I also suggest that you include an aerial view and a frontal picture of the main office building of ALL plants? That woud be a terrific visual document of the southern California aerospace industry in all its glory. Keep up your truly marvelous mission of recording that piece of American technology history for future generations.
Thanks again Mike for the the information. Also so sad to see that we loose all these great aerospace engineering facilities not just here in California but all over US. It's the same story when it comes to aerospace engineering programs at universities. hope to see more industry revival stories in the future. As usual great presentation Mike.
Great video. I grew up in Westchester which is the actual home of LAX . The residential neighborhood North of the airport with El Segundo on the South of the airport. My grandfather was a master machinist and scale model builder who worked for the Navy during WWII building the Norden Bombsite in Indianapolis when Howard Hughes along with the Navy gave him a job at the Hughes facility in Culver City in the late 1950s. My father started working for Hughes around 1958 and ended up at Hughes El Segundo as a supervisor for optical and data systems for the weapons and missile division. As a kid in the middle of the aviation center of the world, it was fun to see historical airplanes flying around, we could ride our bicycles and skateboards in LAX and actually out onto the runways. We could go to the bluffs of Loyola Marymount University and sit above the Hughes Helicopter Plant which had its own runway and watch them test fly helicopters. We'd sneak onto the property avoiding security guards and we would get grocery bags full of magnesium shavings left over from the airframes of the helicopters being built that were thrown away in dumpsters. We would pour a pile of shavings on the concrete street and light it on fire and watch the magnesium glow white hot and it would burn for hours. Having Santa Monica Airport , Hawthorne Airport , Hughes , and LAX all within a mile or three from my house was really cool. There also was Northrup University in my neigborhood and in between the buildings on their campus were old airplane and helicopter fuselages that you could climb into and sit in the cockpits of the planes. Oh, also in the neighborhood at the West end of the LAX runways is the Pacific Ocean , but there are large sanddunes that are not accessible to anyone except authorized personell . Completely fenced off with razor wire and probably pressure sensors around the perimeter. As a little kid I never knew this but as I got to be around 11 or 12 yrs old I was told that that area was where the underground Nike Missile launch silos. I learned that there were more all around the LA area and all along the SoCal Coastline like Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station , Pt. Mugu, just to name a couple. I love learning the history of aviation in SoCal. Thanks again for the video
Wonderful comment, thanks, and that Nike Missile complex protecting the military manufacturers at LAX in the 1960s is actually still visible today. It is the "Jet Pets" site on the NE corner of Pershing Drive and Westchester Parkway.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 --- Mike, I am completely aware of Jet Pets being the "secret" facility. When I was very young the story was Jet Pets was the place where any wild animals or race horses, etc... that were to be flown to whereever, had to go to be prrpaired for transport and that was the reason the place was on such a large piece of property and fenced in with 10ft high hurricane fencing topped off with razor wire. It was always a place of suspicion until a kid got older and learned the truth. It was my father who told me and my siblings after I asked about it around 12 yrs old (1977). As I mentioned in my other post, my dad worked as a purchasing supervisor for Hughes Missile and Weapons optical and data systems. His department worked on the TOW and TRAM guidance systems, the helmet targeting system for the Apache pilots, and the guidance systems for the M1- A1 tank. Those are just a couple of hardware I know of. I'm sure there were many many more projects he had to be top secret about. Growing up in Westchester/ Playa Del Rey was great. The history of aviation and of automobile racing is amazing. I remember when there were still houses off Pershing Dr. And Vista Del Mar Lane where now its just streets with no homes fenced in same along Lincoln behind the Westchester Golf Course. After the houses were moved, knocked down, the streets remained for 20 years and that's where everyone learned to drive a car and motorcycle and it was where we'd hang out as teenagers and drink beer watching the big jets landing on the North Runway. I've seen some wild landings and a few times actually started the car to leave thinking a 747 wasn't going to land on the runway, they would ve so far over north because of the wind it looked like they were heading right at us. I'm sure they were, but last second they'd adjust and touch down . Almost as if they had crabbing capabilities on their landing gear. I've also been to every air show between El Toro and Huineme and out to Edwards. I've got a short video on my TH-cam channel of the fuel tank for the Space Suttle and its huge procession as it made its way up Lincoln Blvd (PCH) from the Marina into Westchester. They parked the shuttle in Westchester for two days off Sepulveda before moving it down Manchester Ave to the museum downtown . For a month beforehand the city was removing all street lights and signs and cutting down trees, removing fire hydrants and mailboxes so that the route was clear of any obstacles. Seeing the Shuttle itself was cool also. I apologize for being long winded. These are subjects that are so amazing to me. Take care
Mike, after watching so many of your excellent videos, I have taken an interest in Douglas aircraft. Last month, at the US Air Force museum in Dayton Ohio, it was interesting to me to pay attention to all the Douglas articles. But, the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II interested me the most. I don't know why. Forward loading maybe with an overhead crane. What an idea! It must have been fun designing that aircraft!!
I was a product of this, as a third generation worker in the industry. Grandma worked at North American during WWII. My parents met working there during the Korean conflict. Dad retired from Northrop. My mom's brother spent his career at Hughes Helicopters. I worked for North American Rockwell, later merged with Boeing and then McDonnell Douglas. I retired from the Long Beach plant.
I grew up in Burbank and I saw many of the planes you described fly around. Also at Van Nuys airport nearby, we had the Air National Guard flying C-97’s and then C-130’s. Lots of cool military planes in So. California
It looks like the Black Widow at "7:08" just came over P.V. hill near Torrance. A another video full of information, thanks. My son works at SpaceX and I got my A&P at Northrup University. Thanks again for all your videos you have made so far....
Not to forget North American's Space Shuttle (Downey), B-1 bomber (Palmdale), and Saturn rocket facility in Seal Beach (currently the location of Boeing's product support organization); Douglas' Thor missle work at Huntington Beach; or the prototyping and testing of Burt Rutan's stuff at Mojave.
At 6:22 where you’ve the photo of “Fish” on his 104…have you ever done a painting of it? That shot is the one that does it the best for me in capturing the Essence of a Test Pilot. When I think of Edwards, American dominance, the X-15, the X-104, I see it from every angle and through every test pilots eyes. And the X-104 is the first aircraft I think of when I think of a test pilot. I’m not sure that entire boyhood dream would have taken root if it wasn’t for the Starfighter, Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich, and frankly, you and finding your work
A wonderful presentation as usual Mike. Great images of some of the best aircraft ever produced. Now that we have a So Cal aircraft manufacturers video to enjoy, can a Long Island aircraft manufacturers video be in our future? Thanks for all your effort.
8:33 L.A. Airways helicopter service from LAX to Disneyland was promptly cancelled after two tragic crashes in 1968 when a main rotor blade detached killing 21 and another flight mechanical blade separation claiming 23 with the pilot's chilling last words "L.A., we’re crashing, help us."
I remember both accidents, and the fact that both 'copters came down in placid residential areas. Similar story with two tragic crashes for New York Airways. Thanks for your comment.
Thank you for a most enjoyable and informative video! Very crowded, of course. How else could the North American B-25 bomber be omitted? What's left in the US besides Boeing? Fewer companies mean fewer choices, less competition, less diversity. Is this good for us in the long run?
Great Historic view of Aircraft Manufacturing of Southern California . However you left out my personal favorite Commercial Airliner Lockheed L-1011 !! The TriStar was manufactured in Lockheed facilities in Burbank and Palmdale, California.
Good point, thanks (I was focusing on the post-World War II through 1960s), and yes Lockheed Palmdale was definitely an important chapter in that company's proud history.
My Los Angeles Metropolitan Geography Class at UCLA taught us that what attracted agriculture, movies and aircraft manufacturing to Socal was good weather and cheap land.
Dad worked on Atlas project for Convair. His PhD classmates worked for Douglas, then Hughes, then RAND. I worked for Northrop. I interviewed at Lockheed and Hughes. The Hawthorn Northrop facility now has SpaceX at one end in what used to be the 747 body panel manufacturing plant. Northrop Grumman bought many facilities in Los Angeles and aerospace components are still built in southern California. BTW the main part of the F18 was made at Hawthorne on giant milling machines bigger than part of the plane. The Snark was built in a WW2 redwood building (redwood so critical material would not be used). It was replaced by a FedEx distribution facility. Why did aircraft manufacturing flee California? Part of it was Congressmen funding military projects only if manufacturing moved to their state. Another reason was everything became more expensive in Southern California. A company that should be added to the list is Scaled Composites based in Mojave Air Port. While they don't mass produce, they have built prototype or one of a kind aircraft. Northrop bought them.
Southern California had a lot going on. . . automotive racing and aviation. Don't have to go far to find a piece of history that was once there. Now most of it replaced with houses or shopping centers.
How did you miss even a mention of the famously mass produced Douglas DC-3 that came out of the Santa Monica Plant along with the WW II C-47 military version? But other than that, an outstanding video that brought back many memories as I was born and raised in West LA next to the Santa Monica Douglas Plant were my father worked. These were good times for the working class families Los Angeles area, but sadly now long gone.
It's pretty crazy how most of the major aviation players were based in SoCal and they changed the landscape while in operation. Now they have disappeared and the landscape has changed once again, but completely different. When you mention 45 companies, did that also include conversion/modification companies like Volpar and On-Mark or was that all companies manufacturing start to finished product? Great topic, Mike!
Thanks Adam, and those 45 aircraft types included any built right up to the end of the War, so Convair B-32, Grumman F8F Bearcat, and several Douglas attack bomber prototypes as well. Didn't include the conversion/modification aircraft actually.
My Father was an engineer and he probably worked for or worked on something that went into most of the aircraft manufactured in the l.a. basin it was a small world back then aviation wise.
I wonder what the risk assessment indicated for potential attack during WWII with so many aircraft manufacturers located on the Pacific coast, or the Atlantic coast for that matter.
To offset that risk, many of these aircraft manufacturers had assembly plants centrally located in the United States. For example, Douglas built most of the C-54 Skymasters in Chicago, IL and A-26 Invader bombers in Tulsa, OK. Boeing built most of their B-29 Superfortresses at Marietta, GA, Omaha, NE and Wichita, KS. North American built B-25 Mitchells at Kansas City, KS. Consolidated built B-24 Liberators near Detroit, MI and Ft Worth, TX. Curtiss built C-46 Commandos in St Louis, MO. Vought Corsairs were built at Columbus, OH. To be sure, there were also other aircraft assembly plants centrally located in the U.S. during WWII.
@@WAL_DC-6B Republic and Grumman were based in New York and built a lot of their planes there. One notable exception was the Grumman Avenger which was licensed and built exclusively by General Motors after 1943; Grumman was too busy with production of the F6F Hellcat and could not handle both manufacturing programs in its traditional factories so the Avenger was handed over to General Motors which built the Avenger in its New Jersey(?) factories (renamed Eastern Aircraft Division). The land-based Marine Corps variants of the Corsair, the FG models, were built in the Akron area of Ohio by Goodyear. I think the basic difference between those and the Vought-built Corsairs that were carrier-based after 1944 were the deletion of the tailhook and hydraulically actuated wing-folding (but the wings could still be folded manually). The tailhook at least could be restored. There were no structural differences that wouldn't let you land the planes Goodyear planes on carriers other than deleted carrier equipment that could be re-installed.
@@AvengerII Oops! Yes, Goodyear indeed built the Corsair at Akron, OH, not Columbus as I mentioned. Curtiss built the SB2C Helldiver at Columbus, OH during WWII.
@@WAL_DC-6B Don't worry about it! It was all made in Ohio but that will probably never happen again! That was the big hurrah for manufacturing in the Midwest. It was all downhill after WW2! The Cleveland-Akron deteriorated quickly after WW2 and Cleveland's become known as the Detroit of Ohio for a reason.
Someday there will be a documentary on the Hula Hut in Downey. Off the corner of Lakewood and imperial. Just down the road from the North American plant. Aerospace watering hole for years. Where was the C-130 built?
Seems like a good video subject Joe - "Watering Holes of Major Aircraft Manufacturers." We had Rochelle's at Douglas Long Beach on Lakewood at the Airport! Lockheed has been building the C-130 at its Marietta, Georgia plant since 1954.
P-3 is still in service. While they'll be withdrawn soon, they're still in service. They fly from Whidbey over my home into Paine Field regularly. They're also still in service in other nations including Canada.
In the early 1970’s I briefly worked at North American Rockwell. In one of the hangers there was a full sized wooden mock-up of the B-1 Lancer. Does anybody here know what eventually happened to it?
Thanks for the question Joseph, and I've posted that on my Facebook Group. Lots of SoCal Aerospace types in that bunch, and 'will let you know if anyone has the answer.
F-18 is currently built as has every F-18 built by Northrop and now Northrop Grumman in El Segundo in the old Douglas plant that built some pretty historic military aircraft.
Great point, and I remember seeing photos of SBD Dauntlesses coming down that same production line when I worked at Douglas. I had a tour of that Northrop Grumman facility and saw F-18 aft fuselage sections being built before being shipped to St. Louis for final assembly. Thanks for watching!
@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 according to the production line manager at the time that took me on the tour, he said that building is the largest wood structure in CA. Not sure how to verify that but....really enjoy your videos. Be on the lookout for a book, Century Series Fighters. Published late 60s. Great book, right up your alley.
Another great program....and a sad 😥 commentary on the decline of the aviation industry. In my home state of Georgia, once upon a time, the largest single private employer in the state was the then Lockheed-Georgia plant in Marietta. Now the largest single private employer is Wal-Mart.....
Thanks Alan, and yes a common story nationwide at former sites of all the great aircraft manufacturers - Lockheed Burbank, Convair San Diego, even Republic and Grumman back on Long Island. Appreciate the comment!
Talk about a state that bites the hands that feed it, California is number ONE. California no doubt taxed those aircraft manufacturers out of business. Talk about a state that is happy to tax itself out of existence, Calif is #1 at doing so.
This is just sad. Blue collar workers raised their kids on the wages made at these aircraft companies. Now you could not afford rent in these areas on the wages paid to aerospace workers today. And yes, I know this first hand.
A sad commentary on the CA political structure that, pick your analogy, bit the hands that fed them or choked the golden egg-laying geese. Seems Washington state following the same misguided path. Great video, Mike.
Back in the day when California was the hub of aircraft manufacturing. Can you imagine how cool it was to live there, and see the great aircraft, and space vehicles built. No wonder so many people ended up in this place. Sad now, nothing is built there anymore, and the place has turned into a woke wasteland.
We can all thank Democrat environmental and tax policy for driving manufacturing out of California in the past three decades. I had family that worked in aircraft manufacturing from the 40s through the 70s. P-38s and DC-9s, among others.
Another great one Mike.
Thanks Max - East Coast companies will be covered next in this series.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 I anxiously await
Thank you Mike for all that you do for aviation history !
Appreciate the comment, thanks!
Thanks for covering this topic. Used to work at Boeing SoCal when production line was still active.
Thank you.
I've never seen so much aircraft as you present.
'Glad you liked it, thanks!
Wow! A lot of great information. Thanks You!!!!!
Glad you liked it Chuck, thanks!
What a great historical summary of SoCal aviation history! I recently drove by the old Douglas plant in Long Beach and noticed the "Fly DC Jets" sign on the South side of Lakewood Blvd still there and lighted up at night. I guess Mercedes Benz took over that building. Weird seeing all the new German cars parked under it. Thanks for you channel and sharing all of your knowledge!!
Great videos, Mike! As a child we lived on the shores of Lake Washington and could see Boeing’s Renton Field from our home. This was the plant that built the B-29 and was camouflaged during the war. Mostly 737’s but the occasional Boeing hydrofoil could be seen during my time there. My father was a machinist and later a computer programmer for Boeing until he retired in the mid 90’s. 👍
Neat story and comment, thanks!
Mike.....
Another great segment. I can only imagine how busy it must have been during war time round the clock production. It reminds me of the scene from the movie "Best Years Of Our Lves" where Dana Andrews is walking through row after row of aircraft mostly airacobras and removed radial engines and props at first until he finds B-17's where he goes inside to re-live his wartime memories. Shame all those aircraft are all just about gone. Those years must have been a great time to experience in the evolution of aviation. Great video.!!
John...
Yes, it was a different era, and great movie you mentioned. Thanks for the comment!
Love that image of the Skystreak. Mike, thank you for this video (and for those videos about to come).
Glad you liked it David, thanks!
Another great video.
Thanks John! East Coast companies coming next in this series.
One of my fondest aviation memories was of watching the factory-new F-106's blast off from Lindbergh Field here in San Diego. Thanks for the great presenation, Mike.
Mr. Machat, you involuntarily forgot the Downey factory, first occupied by Vultee and later by North American. How about a revised version of this fantastic video incuding it? And if you decide so, may I also suggest that you include an aerial view and a frontal picture of the main office building of ALL plants? That woud be a terrific visual document of the southern California aerospace industry in all its glory. Keep up your truly marvelous mission of recording that piece of American technology history for future generations.
Thanks again Mike for the the information. Also so sad to see that we loose all these great aerospace engineering facilities not just here in California but all over US. It's the same story when it comes to aerospace engineering programs at universities. hope to see more industry revival stories in the future. As usual great presentation Mike.
Great video. I grew up in Westchester which is the actual home of LAX . The residential neighborhood North of the airport with El Segundo on the South of the airport.
My grandfather was a master machinist and scale model builder who worked for the Navy during WWII building the Norden Bombsite in Indianapolis when Howard Hughes along with the Navy gave him a job at the Hughes facility in Culver City in the late 1950s. My father started working for Hughes around 1958 and ended up at Hughes El Segundo as a supervisor for optical and data systems for the weapons and missile division.
As a kid in the middle of the aviation center of the world, it was fun to see historical airplanes flying around, we could ride our bicycles and skateboards in LAX and actually out onto the runways. We could go to the bluffs of Loyola Marymount University and sit above the Hughes Helicopter Plant which had its own runway and watch them test fly helicopters. We'd sneak onto the property avoiding security guards and we would get grocery bags full of magnesium shavings left over from the airframes of the helicopters being built that were thrown away in dumpsters. We would pour a pile of shavings on the concrete street and light it on fire and watch the magnesium glow white hot and it would burn for hours.
Having Santa Monica Airport , Hawthorne Airport , Hughes , and LAX all within a mile or three from my house was really cool.
There also was Northrup University in my neigborhood and in between the buildings on their campus were old airplane and helicopter fuselages that you could climb into and sit in the cockpits of the planes.
Oh, also in the neighborhood at the West end of the LAX runways is the Pacific Ocean , but there are large sanddunes that are not accessible to anyone except authorized personell . Completely fenced off with razor wire and probably pressure sensors around the perimeter. As a little kid I never knew this but as I got to be around 11 or 12 yrs old I was told that that area was where the underground Nike Missile launch silos. I learned that there were more all around the LA area and all along the SoCal Coastline like Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station , Pt. Mugu, just to name a couple.
I love learning the history of aviation in SoCal.
Thanks again for the video
Wonderful comment, thanks, and that Nike Missile complex protecting the military manufacturers at LAX in the 1960s is actually still visible today. It is the "Jet Pets" site on the NE corner of Pershing Drive and Westchester Parkway.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 --- Mike, I am completely aware of Jet Pets being the "secret" facility. When I was very young the story was Jet Pets was the place where any wild animals or race horses, etc... that were to be flown to whereever, had to go to be prrpaired for transport and that was the reason the place was on such a large piece of property and fenced in with 10ft high hurricane fencing topped off with razor wire. It was always a place of suspicion until a kid got older and learned the truth.
It was my father who told me and my siblings after I asked about it around 12 yrs old (1977).
As I mentioned in my other post, my dad worked as a purchasing supervisor for Hughes Missile and Weapons optical and data systems. His department worked on the TOW and TRAM guidance systems, the helmet targeting system for the Apache pilots, and the guidance systems for the M1- A1 tank. Those are just a couple of hardware I know of. I'm sure there were many many more projects he had to be top secret about. Growing up in Westchester/ Playa Del Rey was great. The history of aviation and of automobile racing is amazing. I remember when there were still houses off Pershing Dr. And Vista Del Mar Lane where now its just streets with no homes fenced in same along Lincoln behind the Westchester Golf Course. After the houses were moved, knocked down, the streets remained for 20 years and that's where everyone learned to drive a car and motorcycle and it was where we'd hang out as teenagers and drink beer watching the big jets landing on the North Runway. I've seen some wild landings and a few times actually started the car to leave thinking a 747 wasn't going to land on the runway, they would ve so far over north because of the wind it looked like they were heading right at us. I'm sure they were, but last second they'd adjust and touch down . Almost as if they had crabbing capabilities on their landing gear.
I've also been to every air show between El Toro and Huineme and out to Edwards. I've got a short video on my TH-cam channel of the fuel tank for the Space Suttle and its huge procession as it made its way up Lincoln Blvd (PCH) from the Marina into Westchester. They parked the shuttle in Westchester for two days off Sepulveda before moving it down Manchester Ave to the museum downtown . For a month beforehand the city was removing all street lights and signs and cutting down trees, removing fire hydrants and mailboxes so that the route was clear of any obstacles. Seeing the Shuttle itself was cool also.
I apologize for being long winded. These are subjects that are so amazing to me.
Take care
Mike, after watching so many of your excellent videos, I have taken an interest in Douglas aircraft. Last month, at the US Air Force museum in Dayton Ohio, it was interesting to me to pay attention to all the Douglas articles. But, the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II interested me the most. I don't know why. Forward loading maybe with an overhead crane. What an idea! It must have been fun designing that aircraft!!
Another great video. Thanks Mike.
'Glad you liked it, thanks.
very interesting thankyou
Appreciate the comment and glad you like it!
I was a product of this, as a third generation worker in the industry. Grandma worked at North American during WWII. My parents met working there during the Korean conflict. Dad retired from Northrop. My mom's brother spent his career at Hughes Helicopters. I worked for North American Rockwell, later merged with Boeing and then McDonnell Douglas. I retired from the Long Beach plant.
Always interesting!!!
I grew up in Burbank and I saw many of the planes you described fly around. Also at Van Nuys airport nearby, we had the Air National Guard flying C-97’s and then C-130’s. Lots of cool military planes in So. California
Very true!
This was a nice video
It looks like the Black Widow at "7:08" just came over P.V. hill near Torrance. A another video full of information, thanks. My son works at SpaceX and I got my A&P at Northrup University. Thanks again for all your videos you have made so far....
Yes, that's the place at 7:08!
Interesting video... thanks for that.
Didn't North American also build the Apollo Command Modules?
Not to forget North American's Space Shuttle (Downey), B-1 bomber (Palmdale), and Saturn rocket facility in Seal Beach (currently the location of Boeing's product support organization); Douglas' Thor missle work at Huntington Beach; or the prototyping and testing of Burt Rutan's stuff at Mojave.
Good point Eric, thanks!
At 6:22 where you’ve the photo of “Fish” on his 104…have you ever done a painting of it? That shot is the one that does it the best for me in capturing the Essence of a Test Pilot. When I think of Edwards, American dominance, the X-15, the X-104, I see it from every angle and through every test pilots eyes. And the X-104 is the first aircraft I think of when I think of a test pilot. I’m not sure that entire boyhood dream would have taken root if it wasn’t for the Starfighter, Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich, and frankly, you and finding your work
A wonderful presentation as usual Mike. Great images of some of the best aircraft ever produced. Now that we have a So Cal aircraft manufacturers video to enjoy, can a Long Island aircraft manufacturers video be in our future? Thanks for all your effort.
Have had several suggestions about East Coast companies, so stay tuned!
There sure was some Beautiful Planes that Douglas Had in the 50s and Military Planes Also.
Agreed!
8:33 L.A. Airways helicopter service from LAX to Disneyland was promptly cancelled after two tragic crashes in 1968 when a main rotor blade detached killing 21 and another flight mechanical blade separation claiming 23 with the pilot's chilling last words "L.A., we’re crashing, help us."
I remember both accidents, and the fact that both 'copters came down in placid residential areas. Similar story with two tragic crashes for New York Airways. Thanks for your comment.
Thank you for a most enjoyable and informative video! Very crowded, of course. How else could the North American B-25 bomber be omitted? What's left in the US besides Boeing? Fewer companies mean fewer choices, less competition, less diversity. Is this good for us in the long run?
I understand that the B-25 production was in Kansas City, not SoCal.
Great Historic view of Aircraft Manufacturing of Southern California . However you left out my personal favorite Commercial Airliner Lockheed L-1011 !! The TriStar was manufactured in Lockheed facilities in Burbank and Palmdale, California.
Good point, thanks (I was focusing on the post-World War II through 1960s), and yes Lockheed Palmdale was definitely an important chapter in that company's proud history.
My Los Angeles Metropolitan Geography Class at UCLA taught us that what attracted agriculture, movies and aircraft manufacturing to Socal was good weather and cheap land.
Can you please do the impact on avation from the small state of Connecticut. Thank you
Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky are definitely important, and we're planning an East Coast aviation industry episode, thanks!
Dad worked on Atlas project for Convair. His PhD classmates worked for Douglas, then Hughes, then RAND. I worked for Northrop. I interviewed at Lockheed and Hughes.
The Hawthorn Northrop facility now has SpaceX at one end in what used to be the 747 body panel manufacturing plant. Northrop Grumman bought many facilities in Los Angeles and aerospace components are still built in southern California. BTW the main part of the F18 was made at Hawthorne on giant milling machines bigger than part of the plane. The Snark was built in a WW2 redwood building (redwood so critical material would not be used). It was replaced by a FedEx distribution facility.
Why did aircraft manufacturing flee California? Part of it was Congressmen funding military projects only if manufacturing moved to their state. Another reason was everything became more expensive in Southern California.
A company that should be added to the list is Scaled Composites based in Mojave Air Port. While they don't mass produce, they have built prototype or one of a kind aircraft. Northrop bought them.
Southern California had a lot going on. . . automotive racing and aviation. Don't have to go far to find a piece of history that was once there. Now most of it replaced with houses or shopping centers.
Very true, thanks!
How did you miss even a mention of the famously mass produced Douglas DC-3 that came out of the Santa Monica Plant along with the WW II C-47 military version? But other than that, an outstanding video that brought back many memories as I was born and raised in West LA next to the Santa Monica Douglas Plant were my father worked. These were good times for the working class families Los Angeles area, but sadly now long gone.
It's pretty crazy how most of the major aviation players were based in SoCal and they changed the landscape while in operation. Now they have disappeared and the landscape has changed once again, but completely different. When you mention 45 companies, did that also include conversion/modification companies like Volpar and On-Mark or was that all companies manufacturing start to finished product? Great topic, Mike!
Thanks Adam, and those 45 aircraft types included any built right up to the end of the War, so Convair B-32, Grumman F8F Bearcat, and several Douglas attack bomber prototypes as well. Didn't include the conversion/modification aircraft actually.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 Thanks, Mike. That's a staggering amount of aircraft from one small area!
My Father was an engineer and he probably worked for or worked on something that went into most of the aircraft manufactured in the l.a. basin it was a small world back then aviation wise.
Yes, absolutely! Like being in a large family back then.
Where is the Loockheed 1011 Tristar? From MC-Donell-Douglas the MD-11?
And from Northtrop the F-5?
Wow, didn't realise how the aircraft manufacturing industry almost disappeared in LA!
I wonder what the risk assessment indicated for potential attack during WWII with so many aircraft manufacturers located on the Pacific coast, or the Atlantic coast for that matter.
To offset that risk, many of these aircraft manufacturers had assembly plants centrally located in the United States. For example, Douglas built most of the C-54 Skymasters in Chicago, IL and A-26 Invader bombers in Tulsa, OK. Boeing built most of their B-29 Superfortresses at Marietta, GA, Omaha, NE and Wichita, KS. North American built B-25 Mitchells at Kansas City, KS. Consolidated built B-24 Liberators near Detroit, MI and Ft Worth, TX. Curtiss built C-46 Commandos in St Louis, MO. Vought Corsairs were built at Columbus, OH. To be sure, there were also other aircraft assembly plants centrally located in the U.S. during WWII.
@@WAL_DC-6B Great information, thanks!
@@WAL_DC-6B Republic and Grumman were based in New York and built a lot of their planes there.
One notable exception was the Grumman Avenger which was licensed and built exclusively by General Motors after 1943; Grumman was too busy with production of the F6F Hellcat and could not handle both manufacturing programs in its traditional factories so the Avenger was handed over to General Motors which built the Avenger in its New Jersey(?) factories (renamed Eastern Aircraft Division).
The land-based Marine Corps variants of the Corsair, the FG models, were built in the Akron area of Ohio by Goodyear. I think the basic difference between those and the Vought-built Corsairs that were carrier-based after 1944 were the deletion of the tailhook and hydraulically actuated wing-folding (but the wings could still be folded manually). The tailhook at least could be restored. There were no structural differences that wouldn't let you land the planes Goodyear planes on carriers other than deleted carrier equipment that could be re-installed.
@@AvengerII Oops! Yes, Goodyear indeed built the Corsair at Akron, OH, not Columbus as I mentioned. Curtiss built the SB2C Helldiver at Columbus, OH during WWII.
@@WAL_DC-6B Don't worry about it!
It was all made in Ohio but that will probably never happen again!
That was the big hurrah for manufacturing in the Midwest. It was all downhill after WW2! The Cleveland-Akron deteriorated quickly after WW2 and Cleveland's become known as the Detroit of Ohio for a reason.
Someday there will be a documentary on the Hula Hut in Downey. Off the corner of Lakewood and imperial. Just down the road from the North American plant. Aerospace watering hole for years.
Where was the C-130 built?
Seems like a good video subject Joe - "Watering Holes of Major Aircraft Manufacturers." We had Rochelle's at Douglas Long Beach on Lakewood at the Airport! Lockheed has been building the C-130 at its Marietta, Georgia plant since 1954.
Yuo left out that Convair built the fuselage barrels for the DC-10 and MD-11...
P-3 is still in service. While they'll be withdrawn soon, they're still in service. They fly from Whidbey over my home into Paine Field regularly. They're also still in service in other nations including Canada.
Thanks for the info!
In the early 1970’s I briefly worked at North American Rockwell. In one of the hangers there was a full sized wooden mock-up of the B-1 Lancer. Does anybody here know what eventually happened to it?
Thanks for the question Joseph, and I've posted that on my Facebook Group. Lots of SoCal Aerospace types in that bunch, and 'will let you know if anyone has the answer.
F-18 is currently built as has every F-18 built by Northrop and now Northrop Grumman in El Segundo in the old Douglas plant that built some pretty historic military aircraft.
Great point, and I remember seeing photos of SBD Dauntlesses coming down that same production line when I worked at Douglas. I had a tour of that Northrop Grumman facility and saw F-18 aft fuselage sections being built before being shipped to St. Louis for final assembly. Thanks for watching!
@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 according to the production line manager at the time that took me on the tour, he said that building is the largest wood structure in CA. Not sure how to verify that but....really enjoy your videos. Be on the lookout for a book, Century Series Fighters. Published late 60s. Great book, right up your alley.
Another great program....and a sad 😥 commentary on the decline of the aviation industry.
In my home state of Georgia, once upon a time, the largest single private employer in the state was the then Lockheed-Georgia plant in Marietta.
Now the largest single private employer is Wal-Mart.....
Thanks Alan, and yes a common story nationwide at former sites of all the great aircraft manufacturers - Lockheed Burbank, Convair San Diego, even Republic and Grumman back on Long Island. Appreciate the comment!
Talk about a state that bites the hands that feed it, California is number ONE. California no doubt taxed those aircraft manufacturers out of business. Talk about a state that is happy to tax itself out of existence, Calif is #1 at doing so.
This is just sad. Blue collar workers raised their kids on the wages made at these aircraft companies. Now you could not afford rent in these areas on the wages paid to aerospace workers today. And yes, I know this first hand.
Agreed, and thanks for your comment!
A sad commentary on the CA political structure that, pick your analogy, bit the hands that fed them or choked the golden egg-laying geese. Seems Washington state following the same misguided path. Great video, Mike.
Many thanks, Charles, and agreed 100%!
Back in the day when California was the hub of aircraft manufacturing. Can you imagine how cool it was to live there, and see the great aircraft, and space vehicles built. No wonder so many people ended up in this place. Sad now, nothing is built there anymore, and the place has turned into a woke wasteland.
The diminishment of the California aviation industry is symbolic of the state itself.
No argument there and thanks for watching!
We can all thank Democrat environmental and tax policy for driving manufacturing out of California in the past three decades. I had family that worked in aircraft manufacturing from the 40s through the 70s. P-38s and DC-9s, among others.