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Not to be confused with the federal plant in Kansas City for nuclear weapons materials.
The plant's B-25 Mitchell assembly line in 1944

Air Force Plants NC (NAA-K company ID,[1] Government Assembly Plant No. 2,[2] facility ID #2503)[3] was a "government-owned, contractor-operated" plant of North American Aviation[4] during World War II adjacent to Fairfax Field

Background

North American Aviation's president had inspected the field for a WWII aircraft plant by December 1940 when the US government approved construction of a Kansas City production plant for Army B-25 and Navy PBJ-1D bombers. Survey work began in December, the city of Kansas City, Kansas, purchased the airport in February,[5] and the plant's groundbreaking was on 8 March 1941.[1] Contract W535 AC 19341[1] for the initial 1200 B-25D (NA-87) bombers was approved on June 28, 1941;[6] production began in December 1941.

B-25 producation

Fairfax's 1st B-25D was accepted by the USAAF in February 1942 (the first production block was B-25D-1). North American provided parts for the first 100 Fairfax B-25Ds came from AFP #09 in Inglewood, California, and the company had a test flight office at Fairfax.[7] One of the USAAF Modification Centers was built at Fairfax Field from May–October 1942[1] for altering the plant's B-25s. The plant's "high bay" expansion was completed for a 1942 North American contract (never implemented) to build 200 B-29 Superfortress bombers at Fairfax along with the B-25 Mitchell. The expansion began in July 1942 on the east side of the bomber plant and added 350 ft × 1,060 ft (110 m × 320 m) of floor space with twice the height of the existing final assembly bay (completed in March 1943). After several outbuildings were added to the modification center, in October 1944 it became an adjunct[clarification needed] to the final assembly line. The Fairfax plant's employment peaked at 24,329 in October 1943, and the 1st Fairfax B-25J was accepted in December 1943 (555 B-25Js were in the first production block: B-25J-1-NC.) D model production ended in March 1944 with block 35 (B-25D-35-NA) and after North American's California ended B-25 production on July 7, 1944; Fairfax was the sole source for B-25 Mitchells and set a January 1945 record with AAF acceptance of 315 Fairfax aircraft. Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star production planning included a February 1945 visit by two Lockheed representatives to Fairfax, and in April Lockheed shipped a P-80 to the bomber plant for study. Work began on building P-80 jigs, space was cleared for P-80 production in the high bay, and the B-25 assembly line was shortened.[specify]

B-25J production scheduled through December 1945 was terminated August 15, the day after V-J day. Fairfax had built 2,290 B-25Ds (152 Navy PBJ-1D variants) and 4,318 B-25Js of the ~11,000 produced. The federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation set up a depot in the Fairfax district to liquidate war surplus not sent to depots or elsewhere for government use (reusable materials like aluminum and steel were reclamed.) Seventy-two incomplete but flyable B-25Js were sold to the public.

Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Plant

The Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Plant[8] adjacent to Fairfax Air Force Base,[9] was initiated with the "November 7, 1945 [announcement] that General Motors had signed a five-year lease for the former bomber plant"[10] which had several interior railroad spurs from the north.[8] "The reconverted factory finished its first automobile in June 1946",[7] and in 1953 when the F-84F Thunderflash fighter was unveiled, its assembly line was in the same 53 acres (21 ha) building as the automotive production line.[9] General Motors produced 599 F-84Fs at the Fairfax plant, and this was the only time that aircraft & auto production have been run down parallel lines simultaneously.[dubious – discuss] GM purchased the plant in 1960,[11] then in 1985 strarted production in the new General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant built on runways of the closed municipal airport.[12] Production at the former Air Force Plant ceased in May 1987 and the structure was razed in 1989.

image icon 1st B-25 completed at Fairfax

References

  1. ^ a b c d Freeman, Paul (revised 12/29/12). "Sweeney Airport / Fairfax Airport / Fairfax Army Airfield (KCK), Kansas City, KS". Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Eastern Kansas. Airfields-Freeman.com. Retrieved 2013-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ “History of North American Aviation Inc. of Kansas: (Government Assembly Plant No. 2) Kansas City Kansas, June 1941 to 31 October 1943,” appendix to Army Air Forces Material Command: History of the Midwestern Procurement District, 1943, 6–9, 204.4–2 , U.S. Air Force Collection, U.S.A.F. Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; (cited by Macias p. 253)
  3. ^ Murdock, Scott D. (6 May 2003). "List of Air Force Plants". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  4. ^ Irving Brinton Holley Jr., United States Army in World War II, Special Studies: Buying Aircraft: Materiel Procurement for the Army Air Forces (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1989), 294–301 (cited by Macias p. 246)
  5. ^ "Big Bomber Plant for City". Kansas City Times. December 7, 1940. (cited by Freeman and Macais)
  6. ^ http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_bombers/b25_7.html
  7. ^ a b Macias, Richard. ""We All Had a Cause": Kansas City's Bomber Plant, 1941-1945" (PDF). Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains. 28: 244–261. Retrieved 2013-07-14. One out of every fifty B-25s was flown to the Cheyenne Bottoms Gunnery and Bombing Range near Great Bend to test fire the machine guns in flight. … In October 1949 the U.S. Air Force terminated its lease on Fairfax Airport, and the city of Kansas City, Kansas, regained control of the facility. The reconverted factory finished its first automobile in June 1946… In 1960 General Motors purchased the plant. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. ^ a b map title tbd (Map). published in 1946 Fairfax Industrial District, UPRR (map partially depicted online at Airfields-Freeman.com.). map year tbd (after GM lease on November 7, 1945). Retrieved 2013-07-14. Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Plant … Barracks U.S. Navy … Ferrying Group Quarters … Military Air Transport Hangar … Fruehauf Trailer Co. … U.S. Army Air Base {{cite map}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); External link in |location= (help)CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: year (link)
  9. ^ a b "Air Force Unveils New Jet Fighter" (Google news archive). newspaper tbd. July 10, 1953. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
  10. ^ "Rush Car Plant". Kansas City Star. November 7, 1945. (cited by Macias p. 260)
  11. ^ “Fairfax Decision Based on Economics,” Kansas City Times, July 16, 1988; “GM’s Old Fairfax Plant Burns,” Kansas City Star, January 19, 1989. (cited by Macias p. 260)
  12. ^ "Fairfax Assembly Plant". Media.GM.com. 2013-06-20. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
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