About Us: The Aerospace Legacy Foundation, Downey CA

For the last 75 years in Southern California, aviation and aerospace workers and their companies were the life blood of the economy and our Nations fantastic breakthroughs in technology. The legacy of their vision, hard work, and accomplishment is one worth honoring and preserving. The Aerospace Legacy Foundation exists to honor this incredible history.

Quick Facts on Early Years of Downey's NASA site

Downey NASA Site
The first aviation tenant of the land we now know as Rockwell International in Downey was EMSCO, a firm which made a name for itself by manufacturing oil field equipment, and which diversified in 1929 by designing a two place sports airplane.

The first EMSCO (the name stemmed from its founder, E. M. Smith), was built at Long Beach Airport. But the same year EMSCO bought four acres here and built a small aircraft factory and airstrip adjacent to old two-lane Cerritos Road (now Lakewood Boulevard) in Downey.

The second EMSCO aircraft was built at the new Downey plant and flown from the small airstrip that was carved from cow pasture here. Called the Cirrus, the EMSCO plane developed a following when a more powerful version was developed.

From The Downey Eagle

Downey NASA Site:
"The history of this industrial plant and a number of its extant buildings and structures precedes NASA ownership. Originally constructed on farmland owned by James Hughan, the earliest buildings (or portions thereof) were constructed in 1929 to support the emerging aircraft industry. Since that time, the plant has expanded physically several times, modernized to accommodate the changing needs of developing aircraft and aerospace programs, and expanded and contracted its workforce as a result of defense-related research and development and various military conflicts.
Although it has experienced periods of very little activity, it never completely closed its doors and has since 1929 provided uninterrupted economic security for the people and community of Downey California".   
Excerpt from NASA report           


"Recalling the EMSCO plant in Downey where he had worked for a year, Vultee leased the plant from Baker Oil Tools in 1936, and moved his Aviation Manufacturing Corporation from Glendale to Downey.
Vultee's first customer for the V-11-G and V-11-GB was the Chinese National Government which ordered 30 V-11-Gs. The Soviet Union ordered one, and the Turkish government ordered 40 V-11-GBs, while Brazil took 26 V-11-GBs.
But tragedy struck when Vultee and his wife were killed in an air crash in Arizona while en-route to Washington, D.C. in January 1938. He was succeeded as president and general manager of the Vultee plant by Richard Palmer who became chief engineer in 1940, and the plant was named Vultee Aircraft. A new plane known as the V-12-C was ordered by the Chinese who took 26 in 1939. And the U.S. government ordered training planes in a contract worth $2,986,000 with Vultee in August of the same year. The plant was redesigned to meet the new production demands. More