Enough!!!! The P-51 was not built in Downey, CA !!!!!!!!!!!!

[JohnH]

I've seen it mentioned twice in the last few months that the P-51 Mustang was built in Downey. The first time was last December when we were at the Huntington Museum's aerospace display, (honoring local manufacturing here in LA). A picture had a caption stating the airplane "was built in Downey." The museum curator was very apologetic and horrified to find this mistake out. Now today I see this article:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-forgotten-space-shuttle-20120615,0,6942333.story

"Downey, now a sprawling suburb of more than 111,000, the model is a symbol of the city's thriving past as an aerospace center. Aircraft manufacturing boomed there during World War II, with factories churning out P-51 Mustang fighter planes around the clock."

I really don't know where this info is coming from. The plant in Downey was owned by Vultee and built Vibrators during the war. NAA did not own it until 1948. It's weird, the P-51D is one of the most famous airplanes of WWII and it was built in Inglewood, CA and Dallas Texas. It's disturbing that this info is very easily accesible in thousands of articles, books and all over the internet, yet here is this Downey thing creeping into the public record. Maybe I'm wrong???? I've never heard of this.

[Randy Haskin]

Never heard that mistake, either.

[CraigQ]

There was never a P-51 Apache either but that never stopped some of the Allison engined Mustang from being called that. Perhaps Downey is where the 'Apache' was built.....

[Dan Jones]

Birthplace of the Vultee BT-13.

[Dan K]

Birthplace of the Vultee BT-13.

Perhaps city fathers felt that "Downey: Home of the P-51" was more impressive than "Downey: Thousands of Vibrators Successfully Built & Tested" ?

[airnutz]

[jdvoss]

As a point of interest I am currently reading a book concerned with WWII Flight Training. The author has commented (twice) that the Vultee BT-13 Valiant's were built in a massive factory in Englewood, California! Yes, Inglewood ...with an "E".