HISTORY
On July 27, 1917, Secretary
of the Navy
Josephus Daniels approved
the project; the contract
was let on August 6, 1917
and ground was broken four
days later. The entire plant
was completed by November
28, 1917, 110 days after
ground breaking. When it was
completed the greatest need
was for patrol flying boats,
so production of the H-16
patrol aircraft was started.
On March 27, 1918, just 228
days after ground breaking
and 151 days from receipt of
drawings, the first H-16
built by the NAF was
successfully flown. On the
following second of April
the first two NAF-built
H-16s were shipped to the
patrol station at
Killingholme, England. After
World War I, when the 1922
United States Navy aircraft
designation system came into
effect, the second letter of
the codes designating the
manufacturer appropriately
specified the latter N for
all airframe designs coming
from the Naval Aircraft
Factory from then on,
through all of World War II.
During its lifetime the
Naval Aircraft Factory
provided the Navy with its
own manufacturing and test
organization, and also built
aircraft designed by other
manufacturers to evaluate
the cost of aircraft
submitted by industry. The
NAF ended aircraft
production in early 1945.
The existence of the Naval
Aircraft Factory was
controversial at times, as
it put a federally funded
industrial activity in
direct competition with
civilian industry, and this
was one of the reasons it
was disestablished. Upon
disestablishment, the
aircraft test functions were
passed to the newly formed
Naval Air Test Center at
Naval Air Station Patuxent
River, Maryland.
Located at the Philadelphia
Naval Shipyard, the main
construction building still
exists, but was converted
for use by the Naval Surface
Warfare Center, Carderock
Division, as a facility for
research and development.
Source:
Wikipedia
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