Kerry Longford passed along the following comments from an interview he'd done while researching the Navion. "According to Lee Atwood, the President of NAA during the time of the
development and manufacturing of the NAvion (plus he was also the reason for the P-51 being born) the plans for the NAvion were being drawn, but the aircraft had not been given a
name. The letters NAvion were used on the old ticker tape by the New York Stock Exchange for North American (NA) Aviation (vion). I do not recall if he ever told me who first came up
with the idea of using the abbreviation as a name, but he was very clear about how the airplane was named."
As Lee Atwood mentioned above, the Navion name was derived from the manufacturer's name. In fact, early sales materials highlighted the North American reference with the
capitalization of the first two letters, making NAvion. Once the Ryan Aeronautical Corp. purchased the production rights, they dropped the North American reference and stopped the
capitalization of the letter 'A'. Ryan planes are therefore Navions.
Former North American Aviation engineer Bob Reiland, and many others are adamant that NAVY-on (not nav-E-on) is the way it was pronounced at the North American factory, and is
therefore the correct and only way to pronounce our beloved Navion's name.
Early Navions, like this 1948 Navion A were assembled by Ryan
using parts manufactured for North American Aviation. (Ryan)
