U.S. Naval Aircraft Factory

U.S. Naval Aircraft Factory. , The U.S Naval Aircraft Factory was established during World War I to assure a reliable source of specialized aircraft, generate cost data as a check on private manufacturers, and maintain control over design and development. On August 10, 1917, less than eight months after the start of construction, the factory began turning out planes, the H16 flying boat among them. By October 1918 the the workforce had grown to 3,640, including 890 women., Following the war, the facility began to shift focus to aircraft overhaul and repair, as well as experimental research in areas such as all-metal construction, retractable landing gear, anti-blackout equipment, and compressed-air and flush-deck hydraulic catapults. By the mid-1930s the NAF was again gearing-up to produce aircraft, as well as aircraft engines, including the N3N, a primary trainer. Experimental research kept pace, including production of radio equipment for the remote-control of aircraft and missiles, radar and airborne television for planes, drones, and bombs, and high-altitude pressure suites and cabins., While aircraft production concluded in 1945, experimental research continued including development of a high-energy-absorption arresting gear for large carrier planes. In 1956 the NAF was renamed the Naval Air Engineering Facility (Ships Installations), reflecting the end of its manufacturing, overhaul, and repair functions. In all, the NAF produced 63 types of aircraft and 33 types of catapults and arresting gear.,

"The Naval Aircraft Factory and the people who worked there sustained naval aviation and helped make possible the more glamorous accomplishments of those who hazarded the sea or the air. They were the engineers, the craftspeople, the foremen, the mechanics, the painters, the seamstresses, and many others, mostly civilian, who provided the means to get the job done; they were heroes of a difference sort, less visible, but heroes all the same." , (William F. Trimble, Wings for the Navy: A History of the Naval Factory, 1917-1956, Naval Institute Press, 1990).