2. World War II
This war, from 1941 to 1945, spawned military bases and an aerospace and defense industry that remains vital today. In addition, thousands of servicemen and -women liked the state so much that they returned after the war ended.
“The movement to the ‘modern’ Arizona and Phoenix economies started with the military buildup for World War II,” Scottsdale economist Elliott Pollack said.
Pollack said that the federal government attempted to shift manufacturers away from the coasts, where they were more vulnerable to foreign attacks, bringing many aerospace companies to Arizona.
Thanks to Arizona’s wideopen spaces, low population and nearly year-round flying weather, Arizona fields were used to train thousands of pilots at more than a half-dozen fields.
Some of these fields developed into bases or airports that remain, including Luke Air Force Base near Glendale and Davis-monthan Air Force Base near Tucson.
The former Williams Air Force Base near Mesa has been converted into PhoenixMesa Gateway Airport, and Thunderbird Field is now the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Hughes Aircraft began producing Falcon missiles in the 1950s in Tucson. Goodyear Aerospace Corp., Airesearch Manufacturing Co. and Sperry Phoenix Co., which later became Sperry Aerospace Group, came to the Phoenix area.
Today’s defense and aerospace companies include Boeing Co., General Dynamics C4 Systems, Raytheon Missile Systems and Honeywell Aerospace. ductor business later was spun off into Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
Brian Cary, a Salt River Project economist, said, “Intel is the largest current contributor to Arizona’s economy, but, historically, the decision by Motorola to locate and grow several manufacturing operations in the Phoenix area had a huge impact. The state economy was much smaller 30 to 40 years ago, and these operations were enormously influential in creating and growing our technology cluster.”
Motorola’s presence was the beginning of a long string of light, clean industries that flourished in the low-humidity climate in the desert, Pollack said. “It was a place that employers liked because employees like it,” he said.
While Motorola has faded, Arizona attracted Intel Corp., which bought land in Chandler in 1978 and opened its first computer-chip-manufacturing plant in 1980. It now has about 9,700 employees in Chandler and is building a new $5 billion state-of-the art manufacturing plant.