Naval Aircraft Factory in World War Two
Philadelphia, PA
1917-1956

This page updated 9-4-2022.

An American Auto Industry in World War Two Special Edition

The Naval Aircraft Factory was formed along the banks of the Delaware River on League Island in south Philadelphia.  It was located east of the Philadelphia Shipyard.  The U.S. Navy established the Naval Factory because its requirements for aircraft in World War One were different and the quantities required considerably smaller than the U.S. Army.  The aircraft manufacturers of the era were more interested in the large Army contracts than making a few aircraft for the Navy.  Also, during World War One, the U.S. Navy primarily used seaplanes.  The era of aircraft carrier warfare was still 25 years away. 

However, once World War One ended and military aircraft sales to the military fell off, the Naval Aircraft Factory became a target for aircraft manufacturers who saw the Naval Aircraft Factory as taking business away from them.  It survived attempts to have aircraft it was making done by private companies until the end of World War Two when it stopped producing aircraft.  In 1942 it was renamed the Naval Air Material Center.  In 1943 it had a peak employment of 13,400 workers. 

While the building of aircraft was the primary function of the Naval Aircraft Factory, it was also involved in Naval aviation research and development.  It also produced engines and developed shipboard catapults for Naval Aviation during World War Two.  In the three decades after World War Two the various departments and laboratories at the former Naval Aircraft Factory were either closed or moved to other naval research locations.  The last one left in 1974 and the land and buildings were given to the Philadelphia Shipyard.  When the Shipyard closed in 1995, some of the property was repurposed for private use.  However, the Naval Surface Warfare Center still occupies several buildings used by the Naval Aircraft Factory.

Naval Aircraft Factory World War Two Products:

The N3N-3 primary trainer was the Naval Aircraft Factory's most important product of World War Two.  While the F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, and F4U Corsair are credited with sweeping the Imperial Japanese Navy's aircraft from the skies of the Central Pacific during the war, the pilots had to learn to fly at NAS Pensacola in an N3N-3 before they could even begin thinking about flying fighters.  The "Yellow Peril," as the N3N-3 was known to the fledging pilots, taught them how to fly.  This made the N3N-3 the most important U.S. Navy aircraft of World War Two.  Fighter pilots couldn't shoot down Japanese aircraft until they mastered the basics of flying in the N3N-3.

During the same time period the SBD Dauntlesses and TBF/TBM Avengers were sinking Japanese navy and merchant ships until the point they started running out of targets.  These pilots also learned how to fly in a Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3.

During World War Two, the U.S. Navy had a large fleet of seaplanes like the PBY Catalina, PBM Mariner, and OS2U Kingfisher that performed all sorts of missions during the war.  The pilots learned to fly in a N3N-3 with wheels at Pensacola, then learned to take off and land in the water in an N3N-3 like this one on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum.  It is serial number 3022. 

The Naval Aircraft Factory build 816 N3N-3s during 1940-1942.  These trainers were built and ready to train all of the new Naval Aviators that accelerated with the entry of the U.S. into World War Two in December 1941.  Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3s were instrumental in helping to win World War Two.  Author's photo.

This is N3N-3 number 2951 and is on display at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo Aviation Museum.  Author's photo.

Author's photo.

This privately owned Naval Aircraft Factory-built N3N-3 was on display at the 2022 Marion, IN Fly-in/Cruise-in.  Author's photo added 9-4-2022.

Author's photo added 9-4-2022.

This is N3N-3 serial number 2782 which is always on display at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's World War Two Weekend.   Author's photo.

N3N-3 number 2865 was on display at the 2013 Thunder Over Michigan Airshow.  The display included the floats used to convert it to a seaplane.  Author's photo.

Author's photo.

Author's photo.

This is a really cool display of a Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 framework.  This is part of the collection at the National Museum of WWII Aircraft in Colorado Springs, CO.  Author's photo.

Author's photo.

This N3N-3 is part of the Kermit Week's collection at the former Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, FL.  Author's photo.

At the same time as the Naval Aircraft Factory was building the important N3N-3, it was also building 30 Brewster SBN-1s scout-bombers under license.  They were used for training purposes only.  Official U.S. Navy photo.

The next big project after the construction of the N3N-3 and the SNV-1 was the building of 300 OS2N-1s.  These were license built versions of the Vought OS2U-1 Kingfisher observation aircraft.  The U.S. Navy had the 300 units transferred to the Naval Aircraft Factory so Vought could focus all of its resources on the building of the F4U.  There are no known OS2Ns remaining.  This OS2U-3 on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum is similar to the OS2N.  Author's photo.

This OS2U-3 is on display at the National Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL.  OS2U-3s are very similar to the Navy Aircraft Factory's OS2N-2s except for armament, armor, and engine.  Author's photo.

The last aircraft the Naval Aircraft Factory built was a slightly longer version of the Consolidated PBY-5 shown here at the Military Aviation Museum at Virginia Beach, VA.  This allowed the PBN-1 to carry a larger payload and have more range than the PBY-5.  The Naval Aircraft Factory built 156 PBN-1s, most of which were all sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.  Author's photo. 

The Naval Aircraft Factory's TDN-1 drone was used for testing, evaluation, and target practice.  The design was considered by the U.S. Navy to be too complicated to operate in combat conditions.  Official U.S. Navy photo. 

The Naval Aircraft Factory also built several different types of Gorgon series missiles which had different design configurations and jet engines. 

The Naval Aircraft Factory in 1918.  The high-bay building next to the Delaware River still exists and is shown in the second Google Satellite Image below as Building 77 High.  Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Navy.

Mustin Field Naval Air Facility was added for the testing and operation of land based aircraft in 1926.  It was closed in 1963.  U.S. Navy photo.

This shows the totality of the former U.S. Navy complex as it is today.  Google Satellite image.

This enlarged image shows some of the buildings that still exist from the former Navy Air Factory in the lower left of the photo.  It also shows where the former runways for the Mustin Naval Air Facility were.  Google Satellite image.