North American Aviation in the Jet Age: The California Years, 1945-1997

During the waning days of World War II, a frenzied race was underway in rubble-strewn Europe as US and Soviet forces sought to seize advanced German weapons technology. Over the next quarter century the North American Aviation (NAA) would enhance these spoils of war into fearsome weapons in America’s arsenal. There’s the swept-wing F-86 Sabre jet fighter, which would go on to be the only Allied warplane to outmaneuver a Soviet MiG-15 over Korea. X-15 rocket planes carried humans to the boundaries of space, setting speed and altitude records that still hold today. The stories of these weapons and the engineers who nourished them is a fascinating look into postwar corporate history of the NAA and its impact on the United States’ aviation and space history. AUTHOR: John Fredrickson worked at Boeing from 1975 to 2011. His military service included four years of active duty, followed by 17 years with the USAF Reserve. A one-year assignment with the B-52 unit (307th Strategic Wing) at U-Tapao Airfield earned him the Vietnam Service Medal.