Fred Rohr was born in 1896 in Hoboken, New Jersey.  His father was a sheet metal worker from Gemany and shortly after Fred's birth, the family moved to California.  In the 1920s Fred moved to San Diego where he operated the Standard Sheet Metal Works.  In 1925 he started working for the Ryan Aeronautical Company, and soon would be the lead sheet metal fabricator for the company.

Fred Rohr, taken circa 1936.

When Charles Lindbergh contracted the company to build the Spirit of St. Louis, Fred Rohr designed the special fuel tanks necessary to make the long transatlantic flight, in addition to machining many other of the plane’s components. 

Spirit of St. Louis (that Fred Rohr helped build).

After working at Ryan, Fred Rohr worked at another San Diego compnany, Solar, where he experimented with using a drop hammer to manufactuer airplane components.  He then worked for Boeing for a few years, before returning to work with Ryan.  Thoughout the 1930s, he started to envision a new type of aeronautical company, one which could manufacture aircraft parts quickly and efficiently.  In 1940 he made this dream a reality, and incorporated 

Before moving to a building at 8th and J streets (bottom), Fred Rohr started his company out of his garage (top).

With the winds of war blowing, Rohr was able to gain several contracts and soon outgrew the 3 story building at 8th and J and moved to a larger factory in Chula Vista.  During World War Two, Rohr's nearly 10,000 employees built a variety of products, including power plant assemblies, nacelles, and landing gear doors for aircraft such as the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Lockheed P-38.  As many men were called to fight in the War, a great many of Rohr's employees were the famed "Rosie the Riveters."

Rohr's Chula Vista plant would be located at the location that once was home to "Tyce Airport."

Rohr's first factory can be seen in this image from 1941.

B-24 Power Package Assembly Line, November 5, 1942 (in response to President Franklin Roosevelt's call in 1940 for a tenfold increase in the production rate of military planes, Rohr's assembly lines turned out as many as 56 power packages for Consolidated's B-24 bomber during the last three years of World War II)

Advertisement for Rohr from the Second World War highlighting some of the aircraft they helped manufacture.

"Rosie" Dorothy Jorsenson working on the assembly of a nose ring.

As the War winded down, Rohr's production slowed, and employees were laid off.   But the lull would be short lived, as the Cold War ramp up would demand more products.

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