Glendale Central Air Terminal, 1930 – Source: Glendale Public Library, Special Collections.
The Southern California Aerospace Industry
Hughes Aircraft office in Burbank, circa 1932 – Source: Museum of the San Fernando Valley.
Several factors shaped aviation industry growth during the early 20th century. On the heels of the Wright Brothers’ first successful flight in 1903, the U.S. government purchased its first airplane in 1908. Demand for pilots and airplanes would increase at the onset of World War I, during which over 10,000 new pilots were trained and 17,000 airplanes were built.
In 1925, the passage of the Kelly Air Mail Act encouraged private aviation company growth by allowing private contractors to competitively bid on air mail routes, rather than relying on the Army Air Corps (a predecessor to the United States Air Force) for mail delivery. Aviation was further popularized by films such as Wings (1927) and Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels (1930) that featured stunt pilots, and by Charles Lindbergh’s highly publicized transcontinental flight from New York to Paris. In 1926, Congress passed the Air Commerce Act, which helped legitimize the industry. The Act established federal regulations for safety standards such as pilot qualifications, accident investigations, and airway charting that were implemented by the newly-formed Department of Commerce Aeronautics Branch.
In 1926, Congress passed the Air Commerce Act, which helped legitimize the industry.
Los Angeles, from 1910 through the 1930s, possessed a number of very effective civic leaders who contributed to the growth of the region as an aircraft manufacturing center. Harry Chandler, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, used his influence and the reach of his newspaper to entice aviation companies to the area. Harry Culver, founder of Culver City, was instrumental in establishing the Los Angeles Municipal Airport in the late 1920s as an incentive for aircraft manufacturers and carriers. A collective, concerted effort on the part of powerful figures like Culver and Chandler successfully targeted the new aviation industry and marketed the benefits of the Los Angeles area: the moderate climate, lower construction costs, and an abundance of skilled and semi-skilled labor.
Consequently, Los Angeles quickly became home to several of the world’s largest aviation firms. In 1916, the Lockheed Brothers migrated from Northern to Southern California and set up a small aircraft production firm. Within a few years, they became major suppliers to the British Royal Air Force, and by the end of World War II, they had over 60,000 employees. In 1920, Harry Chandler persuaded Donald Douglas to open a company in the region. His firm Douglas Aircraft first rented facilities in an abandoned movie studio in Santa Monica and went on to become one of the chief manufacturers of aircraft in the United States. Jack Northrop opened his first airplane company in Los Angeles in the 1920s, but soon after, merged it with other firms. He started another company in 1939, which benefitted enormously from the impending Second World War, and became yet another aircraft giant. Howard Hughes’ Hughes Aircraft Company, founded in 1932, started in a rented hangar in Burbank, but ultimately grew to encompass 1,300 acres at the edge of Culver City and became one of the largest industrial employers in the state. The move of North American Aviation, later Rockwell International, to Inglewood in 1935 solidified the region as a center of aircraft production. The success of these firms was due in part to a wealth of technical talent graduating from the California Institute of Technology, which had established a School of Aeronautics and an associated research lab in the early 1920s. Theodore Von Karman, head of Caltech at the time, emphasized cooperation with the aircraft industry.
The success of these firms was due in part to a wealth of technical talent graduating from the California Institute of Technology, which had established a School of Aeronautics and an associated research lab in the early 1920s.
Northrop Gamma Racer at Newark Airport, January 13, 1936 – Source: Welcome Home, Howard Digital Collection, UNLV University Libraries Special Collections.
The success of these companies during the war made the aircraft industry crucial to the Southern California economy, providing employment for tens of thousands, as well as substantial tax revenues.
During World War II, the fledgling aircraft industry became a key player in the Allied strategy to defeat the Axis powers. Los Angeles-based companies, including Hughes Aircraft, expanded rapidly to meet wartime manufacturing demands. Smaller companies that may have produced, at most, a few hundred planes, rapidly transitioned into mass production, expanding to be some of the largest companies in the nation. The success of these companies during the war made the aircraft industry crucial to the Southern California economy, providing employment for tens of thousands, as well as substantial tax revenues.
Hughes H-1 Racer, 1945 – Source: Welcome Home, Howard Digital Collection, UNLV University Libraries Special Collections.
Both during and after World War II, the aeronautic technologies and expertise of the aircraft industry created the ideal setting for experimental research in new and highly sophisticated defense weaponry, including missile systems. Southern California was at the forefront of the budding aerospace industry, and the research and development fields. Caltech Graduates Dr. Simon Ramo and Dr. Dean Wooldridge were pioneers in this new industry. Dr. Ramo, manager of General Electric Company’s research laboratory, and Dr. Woodridge, Vice President and Research Physician at Bell Telephone Laboratories, joined Hughes Aircraft in 1945. Together they formed Hughes Electronics, and advanced Hughes Aircraft from a small, inventive aviation manufacturer to a successful aerospace electronics firm. The electronics division worked exclusively on defense programs such as airborne radar, computers, and guided missiles. For a time, this pioneering Hughes Electronics technology was used in every U.S. fighter aircraft to intercept long-range bombers.
By the end of World War II, 60 to 70 percent of the American aerospace industry was located in Southern California;
By the end of World War II, 60 to 70 percent of the American aerospace industry was located in Southern California ; the industry continued to expand and became more crucial in response to events like the Korean War and the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik. Other major aviation companies, including Lockheed, Northrop, Douglas, and Rockwell, which had been primarily production-oriented until the end of the Second World War, eventually followed the lead of Hughes Aircraft and diversified their output to include aerospace research and production, particularly of missiles. Aerospace firms worked closely with local universities to develop aerospace degree and research grant programs, so employees were able to earn specialized degrees in their fields.
The aerospace industry continued to grow and diversify in the postwar period. At the height of the Cold War, 15 of the 25 largest aerospace companies in the U.S. were headquarted in Southern California. Aerospace was such an important part of the regional economy that Los Angeles County was home to one out of every ten aerospace jobs in the country by 1987. Thus, in 1989, when the Cold War ended and rapid downsizing began, the Los Angeles area was hit especially hard. By 1995, the number of Department of Defense spending fell below $50 billion for the first time since 1982. As of 2012, only a few of the largest of the original Los Angeles area firms remained. Some closed completely, while others either relocated, or were absorbed by mergers and consolidations in the 1990s. By 2016, employment in the aerospace industry was one-third of what is was in 1990. And yet, what remains of the aerospace industry in the region from its 20th century heyday continues to be a vital part of the local economy. With the move toward private space travel in the 21st century, new companies, like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, have injected new energy into the aerospace scene, while industry veterans, like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, continue to provide high-paying jobs and groundbreaking technologies.
And yet, what remains of the aerospace industry in the region from its 20th century heyday continues to be a vital part of the local economy.
Theme Sources
For additional reading on the Hughes Industrial Historic District, Howard Hughes, the Spruce Goose, and the history of aerospace in Southern California, see the following sources, which were used in the preparation of this website.