Air Force Plant NC
| 1st B-25 completed at Fairfax |
Air Force Plants NC (NAA-K company ID, Government Assembly Plant No. 2, facility ID #2503) was an aircraft production facility established during World war II adjacent to Fairfax Field near Kansas City. Although operated by North American Aviation, the plant was built and owned by the United States government.
North American Aviation's president had inspected the field by December 1940 when the US government approved construction of a Kansas City production plant to produce B-25 Mitchell bombers for the USAAF and PBJ-1D bombers for the US Navy. Survey work began in December, the city of Kansas City, Kansas, purchased the airport in February, and the plant's groundbreaking was on 8 March 1941. Contract W535 AC 19341 for the initial production of 1,200 B-25D (NA-87) bombers was approved on June 28, 1941; production began in December 1941.
Fairfax's first B-25D was accepted by the USAAF in February 1942 (the first production block was B-25D-1). North American provided parts for the first 100 Fairfax B-25Ds from AFP #09 in Inglewood, California, and the company had a test flight office at Fairfax.
A USAAF Modification Center was built at Fairfax Field from May–October 1942 for altering the plant's B-25s. The plant's "high bay" expansion was completed for a 1942 North American contract (never implemented) to build 200 Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers at Fairfax alongside B-25 Mitchell. The expansion began in July 1942 on the east side of the bomber plant and added 350 ft × 1,060 ft (110 m × 320 m) of floor space with twice the height of the existing final assembly bay (completed in March 1943). After several outbuildings were added to the modification center, in October 1944 it became an adjunct to the final assembly line.
Employment peaked at 24,329 in October 1943, and the first Fairfax B-25J was accepted in December 1943 (555 B-25Js were in the first production block: B-25J-1-NC.) D model production ended in March 1944 with block 35 (B-25D-35-NA) and after North American's California plant ended B-25 production on July 7, 1944; Fairfax was the sole source for B-25 Mitchells and set a January 1945 record with AAF acceptance of 315 Fairfax aircraft.
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