Fairchild Aircraft Company

Fairchild Aircraft Company. . , This site was the location of the Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company and later Fairchild Aircraft Company. Kreider-Reisner was one of America's earlier formal aircraft manufacturing companies and it functioned from 1923 until a few years after it was purchased by Sherman Fairchild in 1929. As of 2007, 14 surviving Kreider-Reisner airplanes were still being carried on Federal Aviation Administration rolls., Sherman Fairchild lost several businesses to the Great Depression, but managed to retain Kreider-Reisner. He consolidated his remaining holdings into the Fairchild Aircraft Company in 1931, operating from this location which became known as "Plant #1". In spite of the terrible economy, Fairchild Aircraft prospered, producing several popular models of civilian and military aircraft. By 1939, the company became the Fairchild Aircraft Division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. The last aircraft was produced on this site in 1963., Production mushroomed during World War II, when Fairchild landed government contracts to produce thousands of PT-19 single-engined primary training aircraft. A second plant was constructed north of town at the current Hagerstown Regional Airport in 1941. Fairchild was Hagerstown's largest employer during the War, with 8,117 local employees in 1943. Due to the need to maximize production created by the War, Fairchild created the "Hagerstown System" where more than two dozen local businesses were coordinated to manufacture components which would then be transported to his factories for inclusion in the final assembly of the aircraft. The Hagerstown System served as a model for other manufacturing efforts later in the War., After the War, Fairchild's Hagerstown facilities manufactured military fighter and cargo aircraft, including the C-82 and C-199 "Flying Boxcar". The last planes constructed in Hagerstown were over 700 A-10 Thunderbolt jets (nicknamed "the Warthog"), under contract with the Department of Defense. The last A-10 rolled off the production line in 1984., [Captions:] , This shed was part of the original Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company facilty; one of the first aircraft manufacturers in the world which formed in 1923. The shed was removed from this site in 2005 and placed in storage for future use in a museum. , Maryland Cracker Barrel Magazine, A Fairchild C-119 "Flying Boxcar". The C-119 was built in Hagerstown during the period of 1947 to 1955. Of 1,183 constructed, 1,112 were built in Hagerstown by Fairchild. , U.S. Air Force Photo, A Hagerstown-built A-10 Thunderbolt or "Warthog" photographed at Bagram Air Base, Iraq in 2007. , U.S. Department of Defense Photo