Niagara Falls, NY: (Wheatfield, NY:) Former Bell Aircraft Factory and Museum

Factory: (Satellite)

Museum: (Satellite)

James Cavanaugh Photography posted
From my Archive. A 2008 view of the Bell Aircraft Factory at the Niagara Falls International Airport. Built in 1940, the plant produced about 15,000 aircraft during WWII and employed more than 30,000 people. After the war, the plant transitioned to experimental test aircraft (X-1, X-2, X-22) and commercial helicopters (Model-47). They also moved into aerospace products including the Agena rocket engine and the Lunar Assent engine that safely brought the Apollo astronauts safely back from the moon. Today the building is largely empty.
Jim Cavanaugh shared with the same comment

Tom Liptak: Rockets are actually still built and live-fired tested on site, using a lot of the same equipment from the Bell days!

PD Cappola: Are one the ascent engines at the BELL museum? [Unfortunately, their domain name, bellaircraftmuseum.org, has been hijacked. Bell was born in Mentone, IN.]

Jim Cavanaugh: PD Cappola it is.

Justin J. M. Higner shared

Vince Harzewski: Years ago, when Bell still had a a small presence in the plant (building gravitometers, IIRC) I did some work on an intercom system for them. The switching equipment was at the airport end of the property (in an electrical closet next to the elevator that went up to Lawrence Bell's private apartment) The intercom stations were all at the Walmore Rd. end of the plant. Lots of walking back and forth on that job.

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Bartel Miller posted
This is an aerial view of the old Bell Aircraft plant in 1941! The plant and company, located at 2041 Niagara Falls Blvd, was the foremost aircraft firm of the times back then.
Justin J. M. Higner shared
TJ Tomsen: I believe that was one of the earliest GOCO plants or "government owned contractor operated". Bell bought the plant at some point not long after the war.

Justin J. M. Higner posted
Artist rendering in 1962 showing the proposed first additions to the original administration building on the south side of the main plant. A great deal would change from this rendering, especially the less-than elegant causeway over the boulevard that was actually built later, otherwise known as the 'cattle shoot'. What was eventually built was demolished earlier this year after years of decay. What do you recall?

Iain Gellatly: My father worked here from 1963 until 1985, and I interviewed here as a college student. I remember touring the large original drafting hall (left end of original admin building second story with the skylight top where the X1, X22 and many more where designed), seeing Larry Bell's original office (far left end with a private rooftop terrace complete with a BBQ grill), a row of switchboard operators routing calls to thousands of phone extensions (near center entrance), walking through the Frontier Room (large conference center far left end that hosted Astronaut Neil Armstrong and other guests) and having lunch in the Executive Dining Room (near the center entrance) with PhD Engineers who developed rocket engines for NASA, automatic landing systems for aircraft carriers and much more. So much innovation and groundbreaking aviation history happened right here. Sad to see it gone.

Justin J. M. Higner shared

They also made the Rocket Belt.

NiagaraAerospaceMuseum

Bell built America's first jet. [in.gov]