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Convair

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Convair

Convair, originally Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company created by the 1943 merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft, which later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. It was purchased by General Dynamics in 1953 and operated as their Convair Division for most of its corporate history.

Convair is best known for its military aircraft, such as the Convair B-36 Peacemaker and Convair B-58 Hustler strategic bombers, and the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and Convair F-106 Delta Dart Century Series interceptors. It also manufactured the first Atlas rockets, including those used for the crewed orbital flights of Project Mercury. The company's subsequent Atlas-Centaur design continued this success, and derivatives of the design remain in use as of 2025.

In addition to producing propeller-driven civilian airliners, such as the ten or so variants of the CV-240, the company entered the jet airliner business with its Convair 880 and Convair 990 designs. These were smaller than contemporary aircraft like the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, but somewhat faster than both. The jets made their first flights on January 27, 1959 and January 24, 1961, respectively. When only 65 and 37 examples of the Convair 880 and Convair 990 were produced respectively, the company exited the airliner design business.

While the pair’s combination of features failed to find a profitable niche, the manufacturing capability built up for these projects allowed the company to became a major subcontractor for airliner fuselages.

In 1994, most of the company's divisions were sold by General Dynamics to McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed, with the remaining components deactivated in 1996.

Consolidated Aircraft Company produced important aircraft in the early years of World War II, especially the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber and the PBY Catalina seaplane for the U.S. armed forces and their allies. Approximately 18,500 B-24s were produced by Consolidated Aircraft and a number of major contractors across a number of versions; it holds records as the world's most-produced bomber, heavy bomber, multi-engine aircraft, and American military aircraft in history. The Catalina remained in production through May 1945, and more than 4,000 were built.

What was soon called "Convair" (first unofficially, and then officially), was created in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft Company and the Vultee Aircraft Company. This merger produced a large aircraft manufacturer, ranked fourth among United States corporations by value of wartime production contracts, higher than the giants Douglas Aircraft, Boeing, and Lockheed. Convair always had most of its research, design, and manufacturing operations in San Diego County in Southern California, though surrounding counties participated as well, mostly as contractors to Convair.

In March 1953, all of the Convair company was bought by the General Dynamics Corporation, a conglomerate of military and high-technology companies, and it became officially the Convair Division within General Dynamics.

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