avia.wikisort.org - Manufacturer

The Vultee Aircraft Corporation became an independent company in 1939 in Los Angeles County, California. It had limited success before merging with the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in 1943, to form the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation − or Convair.[1]

Vultee Aircraft Corporation

Predecessor	Airplane Development Corporation (1932–1934) AVCO Aviation Manufacturing Corporation (1934–1939)
Founded	1939; 83 years ago (1939)
Founder	Vance Breese Gerard Vultee
Defunct	1943; 79 years ago (1943)
Fate	Merged with Consolidated Aircraft to form Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation
Successor	Convair
Headquarters	Downey, California , U.S.

History

Gerard "Jerry" Freebairn Vultee (1900–1938) and Vance Breese (1904–1973) started the Airplane Development Corporation in early 1932 ^[where?] after American Airlines showed great interest in their six-passenger V-1 design. Soon after, Errett Lobban (E.L.) Cord bought all 500 shares of stock in the company and the Airplane Development Corporation became a Cord subsidiary.^{[citation needed]}

AVCO subsidiary

Due to the Air Mail Act of 1934, AVCO established the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation (AMC) on November 30, 1934 through the acquisition of Cord's holdings, including Vultee's Airplane Development Corporation. AMC was liquidated on January 1, 1936 and Vultee Aircraft Division was formed as an autonomous subsidiary of AVCO.

Jerry Vultee was named vice president and chief engineer.[2] Vultee acquired the assets of the defunct AMC, including Lycoming Engines and Stinson Aircraft Company.

Meanwhile, Vultee and Breese had redesigned the V-1 to meet American Airlines' needs and created the eight-passenger V-1A. American purchased 11 V-1As, but sales of the aircraft failed to materialize because regulations were introduced requiring that aircraft used on scheduled passenger routes have two engines, and the V-1 was of little interest to other operators and only 25 were built. Vultee then developed the V-11 attack aircraft using the wings and tail from the V-1, which received sizable orders, albeit almost all from foreign countries with 40 for Turkey, 30 for China, 26 for Brazil, and 4 for the Soviet Union, where an additional 31 were built under licence. Hoped for orders from the United States Army Air Corps failed to materialize beyond test samples though, as the USAAC had made the decision to use only twin engine attack aircraft. This led to the development of the improved V-12, but aside from the prototype, all of these were sold to China, including three completed aircraft and 75 as knockdown kits of which at least 25 were assembled before Japanese troops overran the facility where they were being assembled.

By 1937, Vultee headed his own factory in Downey, California, with more than a million dollars in orders for V-1s, V-1As, and V-11s.[2]

In 1938, before Vultee become independent again, Jerry Vultee and his wife Sylvia Parker, daughter of Twentieth Century Fox film director Max Parker,[2] died in late January when the plane he was piloting crashed in a snowstorm near Sedona, Arizona.[3]

A bronze plaque memorializing the Vultees is located near the crash site at the end of Coconino Forestry and Vultee Arch Trails, where a natural rock arch named for them, the Vultee Arch, is located.[4] Donald P. Smith, Vultee's close friend and vice president of Vultee Aircraft, wrote a letter to TIME magazine about Vultee's death:

Sirs:

''Gerard F. Vultee ("Jerry"), not Gerald, my close friend and business associate for many years, was killed when the cabin monoplane he was flying with Mrs. Vultee crashed on the flat top of Wilson Mountain [TIME, Feb. 7]. ... Caught in a local snow-storm and blizzard with no training in blind or instrument flying, he was unable to find his way out. The fire occurred after the crash, not before.

DON P. SMITH Vice President

Vultee Aircraft Los Angeles, Calif.[5]

AVCO hired Dick Palmer away from Howard Hughes to take Jerry Vultee's place, and Vultee Aircraft Division began to develop military designs. Dick Palmer created the BT-13, BT-15, and SNV Valiant trainers[2] and oversaw other major production program such as the V-72 Vengeance, serving in the USAAC as the A-31 and A-35.

Independent company

Vultee Aircraft was created in November 1939, when Vultee Aircraft Division of AVCO was reorganized as an independent company.[7][2]

The P-66 Vanguard was a 1941 fighter program that was intended for Sweden that was inherited by the USAAC, Great Britain and finally, China. The P-66 had a mediocre combat record in China and was out of service by 1943. The XP-54 fighter project was the last Vultee Aircraft design, but only two examples were built.[8][9][10]

Vultee was the first company to build aircraft on a powered assembly line, and the first to use women workers in production-line positions.

Merger

On March 17, 1943, Consolidated and Vultee merged, creating Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, popularly known as Convair.[11] The Vultee management resigned.[10][12]

Timeline

This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2014)

• 1929 Aviation Corporation (AVCO) holding company formed by multiple participants
• 1932 Airplane Development Corporation formed by Gerard F. "Jerry" Vultee; Errett Lobban Cord soon takes it over
• 1934 AVCO acquired the Airplane Development Corporation from Cord and formed the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation (AMC)[13]
• 1936 AMC liquidated to form the Vultee Aircraft Division, an autonomous subsidiary of AVCO
• 1939 Vultee Aircraft Division of AVCO reorganized as an independent company known as Vultee Aircraft, Inc.
• 1941 Consolidated Aircraft Corporation sold to AVCO
• 1942 Vultee acquires Intercontinent Aircraft Corporation[14]
• 1943 Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, generally known as Convair, formed by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft; still controlled by AVCO
• 1947 Convair acquired by the Atlas Corporation
• 1953 (or 1954) Convair acquired by General Dynamics
• 1985 General Dynamics formed the "Space Systems Division" from the Convair Space Program
• 1993 Lockheed Corporation acquires General Dynamics' Fort Worth aircraft division, builder of the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
• 1994 Space Systems Division sold to Martin Marietta
• 1994 Convair Aircraft Structures unit sold to McDonnell Douglas
• 1997 McDonnell Douglas sold to Boeing

Aircraft

Model name, service name	First flight	Number built	Type
V-1	1933	25	Single engine airliner
V-11 YA-19	1935	169	Single engine attack aircraft
V-12	1939	79	Development of V-11
V-51 BC-3	1939	1	Prototype single engine basic combat trainer
V-54 BT-13 & BT-15 Valiant	1939	11,538	Single engine basic trainer
V-48 P-66 Vanguard	1939	146	Single engine fighter
V-72 Vengeance	1941	1,931	Single engine dive bomber
V-84 XP-54	1943	2	Prototype twin boom pusher engine fighter
V-90 XA-41	1944	1	Prototype single engine dive bomber
XP-68 Tornado	n/a	0	Unbuilt development of V-84

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• Info & Fotos of various Vultee Aircraft.
• Additional info & fotos about Jerry Vultee & Vultee Aircraft.
• Textron Lycoming Turbine Engine, a Company History of AVCO and Lycoming/Textron
• Avco Financial Services, Inc. from the Lehman Brothers Collection – Twentieth Century Business Archives
• Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission
• General Dynamics Corporation, U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission
• Central Manufacturing Co. of Connersville, Indiana, a history of Cord, AVCO, and others

На других языках

---

[de] Vultee Aircraft

Das Unternehmen Vultee Aircraft war ein US-amerikanischer Flugzeughersteller, der 1939 selbständig wurde und im März 1943 mit der Consolidated Aircraft Corporation zur Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (ab 1954 Convair) verschmolzen wurde.

---

- [en] Vultee Aircraft

---

[fr] Vultee Aircraft

Vultee Aircraft Inc est un constructeur aéronautique américain disparu. Cette entreprise doit son nom à Jerry Vultee, ingénieur aéronautique tragiquement disparu en 1938. En novembre 1942 Vultee entra dans le capital de Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, les deux entreprises formant Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation en mars 1943. En 1954, Convair fut absorbée à son tour par General Dynamics.

---

[ru] Vultee Aircraft

«Валти Эркрафт» (англ. Vultee Aircraft) — бывшая американская авиастроительная компания, основанная в 1939 году. В 1943 году произошло её слияние с Consolidated Aircraft, с образованием Consolidated-Vultee (Convair).

---

---