Vultee Rotunda

The Rotunda still stands today.
1936-1941 ...architect Gordon B. Kaufmann designed additional space for the rapidly growing Downey plant. By 1940 the plant had doubled in size. As World War II approached, activity at the Vultee plant, in both production and personnel, continued to increase. To protect the plant from possible enemy detection, most of the buildings were camouflaged to appear like surrounding farmland and orange groves. An antiaircraft gun was also emplaced on the roof of Building 1 to support antiaircraft operations that occurred near Paramount and 3rd Streets. Crosswalks were also built across Lakewood Blvd. to assist thousands of workers as they crossed the busy street. During the early 1940's the Vultee Valiant Basic Trainer was produced for the Army Air Corps.
Vultee was the first major manufacturing plant to use powered assembly lines producing more planes in a shorter span of time than any other similar plant.