Home of the North American Eagle - World Land Speed Challenger

North American Aviation, Inc.

I received my discharge from the Navy on a Friday. That evening, I visited an old high school chum, Ronald Conrad. We were drinking coffee at his folk's kitchen table, when his father, Raymond Conrad, joined us. Mr. Conrad was the Facilities Manager for Engineering at North American Aviation, Incorporated (NAA). He asked me what I was planning to do next. I told him I wanted to get married eventually, but would probably go back to school at UCLA first, once I figured out how to pay for it. He asked me I would like a temporary job in the meantime, and I assured him that I would be interested. He made a phone call, put me in his car, and took me to the NAA plant at the Los Angeles Airport. There, I talked with the Engineering Blueprint Night Manager. Finally, he told me to report to personnel on Monday morning for processing. I started work that Monday night as a Blueprint "C" for $1.00 per hour plus six cents per hour night bonus - a great salary in those days. I operated a bluepring machine that converted engineering drawings on velum material into white-on-blue blueprints used in most shops. That "temporary" job was the beginning of a twenty-six year career with NAA.

The Kindleberger Legend

The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NAA was "Dutch" Kindleberger, a German immigrant that had started NAA on the East Coast before moving it to California. Many of his key managers were Germans that he recruited out of Germany when Adolf Hitler began to rattle his swords of war. By the time World War II started, Dutch had become the most powerful and most respected man in the world's burgeoning new aerospace industry. By the time that I went to work for NAA, the corporation had built more aircraft than any other corporation in the world. Almost every World War II pilot had learned to fly in NAA's famous trainer, the AT-6 Texan. When Billy Mitchell bombed Tokyo, he did it with NAA's B-25s. By the war's end, the greates fighter in the world was NAA's P-51 Mustang. In fact, aviation experts contend that the Mustang was the finest plane ever built for its day. During the Korean War, the "Mig Alley" champion was NAA's F-86 Sabre Jet. Next, NAA built the famous X-15 rocket ship, the XB-70 experimental Mach 3 ship, the still-active B-1 bomber, and many others. More will be said about some of these classic aircraft a little later in this section. How could one firm have built so many world-class aircraft? The answer was simple - Dutch Kindleberger, who became a legend in his own time.

I had my first meeting with Dutch three days after I started work for NAA. I was working at my blueprint machin, concentrating on learning how to make the big thing work properly, when a man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me how I was doing. I was somewhat annoyed at the interruption - a novice operator simply could not take his eyes off the machine while it was in operation. I recall giving him a gruff "OK." He uttered a few pleasantries to which I barely responded, and then he left. My boss came running over and congratulated me on having met Dutch. I was mortified at the terse and unfriendly way I had acted toward the CEO and told my boss so. He assured me that Dutch understood and would most certainly talk to me again ... which he did many times. It seems the Dutch spent much of his time meeting with and talking to his employees. Most of his time was spent memorizing names and other pertinent information about his people. It was rumored that he knew the first names of all his employees, as well as the names of spouses and children. Every time that I talked to him, he always knew the names of my family and never failed to ask about them. Every time we had a child, Dutch came around immediately to congratulate me. On family birthdays, there was always a personal card from Dutch. I have no idea how he managed it, because NAA employed between 30,000 and 40,000 people during those days. Obviously, his workers adored him and would do anything for him, and that was the secret to his success. Twenty years after Dutch's death, Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, Jr. became famous by writing the best-seller, In Search of Excellence, in which they advised executives to maximize subordinates' performance through the process of "Managing by Walking Around." I wonder if they first formed that now famous concept after hearing some of the tales told about the legendary Dutch Kindleberger.

Part 3: The Mustang

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