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Aerospace Legacy Foundation- Pioneers of Aviation
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James Howard ("Dutch") Kindelberger
1895 - 1962
James Howard Kindelberger was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1895, the son of a German-American steelworker. In 10th grade, he quit school and followed his father into the Wheeling steel mills--then immediately began plotting his escape. Working by day and studying at night, Dutch managed to pass the entrance exams to Carnegie Tech. From 1917 to 1918, he served as a World War I pilot. At the end of the war, Kindelberger was hired as a draftsman for the Glenn L. Martin Company--and found himself working under the country's foremost aviation expert, Donald Douglas.
Forging a lifetime friendship with Donald Douglas, Kindelberger served as Vice President of Engineering at Douglas Aircraft--where he led the development of the DC-1 and DC-2. In 1934, North American Aviation asked him to take over as president--and Dutch rapidly built the company into one of the world' leading aircraft manufacturers. In the 1940s, North American Aviation produced two of the Second World War's most storied warplanes: the B-25 Mitchell bomber and the P-51 Mustang.
Following the war, Dutch built America's first swept-wing jet fighter, the legendary F-86 Sabre Jet (right)--which overwhelmingly defeated the Russian-built MIGs as they battled in the skies over Korea. But it was Kindelberger's visionary foresight that distinguishes him as one of America's greatest aerospace pioneers. Reshaping his company's mission in the post-war era, Dutch pioneered U.S. rocket research in the 1950s. In 1958, North American Aviation rolled out the X-15 Rocket--the critical step between the domain of jet aviation and manned space flight. And in July 1969, under North American leadership, the Apollo Moon Landing was successfully achieved.
Source: www.pioneersinaviation.com
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After Dutch retired, Lee Atwood took over North American Aviation.
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North American Aviation from The Centennial of Flight
"North American Aviation was established in December 1928 as a holding company. Its founder, Clement Keys, intended for it to invest in a range of aviation businesses rather than become another aircraft manufacturer. Its first years were spent buying and selling interests in a number of aviation and airline companies through a series of complicated transactions. The Air Mail Act of 1934, however, forced aviation holding companies to break up (although North American was able to retain Eastern Air Lines until 1938). One of the new companies retained the name North American Aviation. James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger was recruited from Douglas Aircraft as the new company president.
The new North American focused on manufacturing aircraft, and Kindelberger moved the company to southern California, where the weather allowed flying year-round. His strategy was to produce small military training aircraft as he felt that competing with the larger, more-established companies would be difficult. Its first planes, the GA-15 observation aircraft and the GA-16 trainer led to the O-47 and the NA-16 (also called the BT-9), a low-wing monoplane that won the 1934 Army Air Corps trainer competition. The NA-16 was the first in a long line of trainers that would continue for some 25 years. North American's first combat airplane, the BC-1, built in 1937, was based on the NA-16.
With war approaching, North American stepped up aircraft production. In 1940, it opened factories in Dallas and Kansas City, Kansas. From 1938 through 1945, the company produced 43,208 aircraft, more than any other U.S. manufacturer.
Several of its planes were notable. The T-6 Texan (called the SNJ by the Navy and the Harvard by the Royal Air Force) was the most famous Allied trainer of the war and, with 17,000 built, very likely the most widely used trainer ever. The B-25 Mitchell twin-engine bomber was the first bomber used in all World War II combat theaters and the first to sink Axis submarines. It is perhaps best known for the raid its pilots made on Tokyo on April 18, 1942, led by Col. Jimmy Doolittle. North American's P-51 Mustang was initially designed for the British as a medium-altitude fighter. But once the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, built by Packard in the United States, replaced its Allison engine, it became arguably the outstanding American fighter of the war."
For more info click here……continued
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