Helsinki was seen as a bad location for an armaments factory from a strategic viewpoint.

[1] In 1936 the factory was moved to Härmälä, near Tampere, which was also a potential bombing target since it was the biggest industrial city in Finland.

The build up of the factory and the airport around it gave work to hundreds of people in the depression of the 1930s.

During the Second World War, the VL serviced and assembled German (Junkers Ju 88) and British (Bristol Blenheim) bomber aircraft.

The Karhumäki brothers' factory was entirely transferred under VL's supervision at the end of the war.

With the ending of World War II in 1945, the Valtion Lentokonetehdas and other state owned factories were merged into the company Valtion Metallitehtaat Lentokonetehdas (State Metal Factories, often abbreviated to V.M.T.