An Anglo-owned company until it was nationalized by the new Navajo Nation, Farmington-based Ravenscroft Industries originally produced light machinery. As one of a handful of companies capable of the precision engineering required for aircraft manufacture, Ravenscroft was a natural choice to build the Navajo Nation’s first aircraft plant. Construction of the assembly facility began in the fall of 1931, and the first aircraft rolled out in the spring of 1933.

The Ravenscroft plan is far from the usual mass-production facility. Production of the Coyote, Ravenscroft’s only aircraft to date, numbers a mere twenty per year. The recent opening of a second plant in Cedar Ridge suggests that the company intends to step up its output. However, last month’s raid on the new site by rogue Hopi warriors forced a delay in production, and so the first aircraft are not expected to roll off the Cedar Ridge production line until 1938.