 | |
| Industry | Aircraft,Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | |
| Founded | 1943; 82 years ago (1943) |
| Defunct | 1996; 29 years ago (1996) |
| Fate | Operations permanently shut down |
| Headquarters | , |
| Parent |
|
| Subsidiaries | Consairway |
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Convair, originallyConsolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company created by the 1943 merger ofConsolidated Aircraft andVultee Aircraft, which later expanded intorockets andspacecraft. It was purchased byGeneral Dynamics in 1953 and operated as theirConvair Division for most of its corporate history.
Convair is best known for its military aircraft, such as theConvair B-36 Peacemaker andConvair B-58 Hustler strategic bombers, and theConvair F-102 Delta Dagger andConvair F-106 Delta DartCentury Series interceptors. It also manufactured the firstAtlas rockets, including those used for the crewed orbital flights ofProject Mercury. The company's subsequentAtlas-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 theCV-240, the company entered thejet airliner business with itsConvair 880 andConvair 990 designs. These were smaller than contemporary aircraft like theBoeing 707 andDouglas 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 toMcDonnell Douglas andLockheed, with the remaining components deactivated in 1996.[1]
Consolidated Aircraft Company produced important aircraft in the early years ofWorld War II, especially theB-24 Liberator heavy bomber and thePBY Catalina seaplane for theU.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 theVultee Aircraft Company. This merger produced a largeaircraft manufacturer, ranked fourth among United States corporations by value of wartime production contracts, higher than the giantsDouglas Aircraft,Boeing, andLockheed.[2] Convair always had most of its research, design, and manufacturing operations inSan Diego County inSouthern California, though surrounding counties participated as well, mostly as contractors to Convair.
In March 1953, all of the Convair company was bought by theGeneral Dynamics Corporation, a conglomerate of military and high-technology companies, and it became officially theConvair Division within General Dynamics.[3]
After the beginning of theJet Age[citation needed] of military fighters and bombers, Convair was a pioneer of the delta-winged aircraft design, along with the FrenchDassault aircraft company, which designed and built theMirage fighter planes.
One of Convair's most famous products was the ten-enginedConvair B-36 strategic bomber, burning fourturbojets and turning six pusher propellers driven byPratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial piston engines. TheConvair B-36 was the largest land-based piston engine bomber in the world. TheAtlas missile, theF-102 Delta Dagger andF-106 Delta Dart delta-winged interceptors, and the delta-wingedB-58 Hustler supersonic intercontinental nuclear bomber were all Convair products. In the 1960s, Convair manufactured jet commercial airliners, theConvair 880 andConvair 990 Coronado, but these were not profitable. However, Convair found that it was profitable to be an aviation subcontractor and manufacture large subsections of airliners, such as fuselages, for larger airliner companies,McDonnell Douglas,Boeing andLockheed.
In the 1950s, Convair shifted money and effort to its missile and rocket projects, producing theTerrier missile ship-launched surface-to-air system for theU.S. Navy during the 1960s and 1970s. Convair'sAtlas rocket, originally proposed in 1945 with a unique pressurized cylinder airframe, was revived in the 1950s as anICBM for theU.S. Air Force usingV-2 technology motors in response to theSoviet missile threat.[4] It was first launched in 1957 but its use as an ICBM was soon replaced in 1962 by the room-temperature liquid-fueledTitan II missile, and later by the solid-fueledMinuteman missile. The Atlas rocket transitioned into a civilian launch vehicle and was used for the first orbital crewed U.S. space flights duringProject Mercury in 1962 and 1963.
TheAtlas rocket became a very reliable booster for launching of satellites and continued to evolve, remaining in use into the 21st century, when combined with theCentaur upper stage to form theAtlas-Centaurlaunch vehicle for launching geosynchronouscommunication satellites andspace probes. The Centaur rocket was also designed, developed, and produced by Convair, and it was the first widely used outer space rocket to use the all-cryogenic fuel-oxidizer combination ofliquid hydrogen andliquid oxygen. The use of this liquid hydrogen – liquid oxygen combination in the Centaur was an important direct precursor to the use of the same fuel-oxidizer combination in the SaturnS-II second stage and the SaturnS-IVB third stage of the giganticSaturn V Moon rocket of theApollo program. The S-IVB had earlier also been used as the second stage of the smallerSaturn IB rocket, such as the one used to launchApollo 7. The Centaur upper stage was first designed and developed for launching theSurveyor lunar landers, beginning in 1966, to augment thedelta-V of the Atlas rockets and give them enough payload capability to deliver the required mass of the Surveyors to theMoon.
More than 100 Convair-produced Atlas-Centaur rockets (including those with their successor designations) were used to successfully launch over 100 satellites, and among their many other outer-space missions, they launched thePioneer 10 andPioneer 11 space probes, the first two to be launched on trajectories that carried them out of theSolar System.
In addition to aircraft, missiles, and space vehicles, Convair developed the largeCharactron vacuum tubes, a form ofcathode-ray tube (CRT) computer display with a shaped mask to form characters,[5] and to give an example of a minor product, theCORDIC algorithms, which is widely used today to calculatetrigonometric functions incalculators,field-programmable gate arrays, and other small electronic systems.
General Dynamics announced the sale of the Missile Systems Division segment of Convair toHughes Aircraft Company in May 1992[6] and the Space Systems Division segment toMartin Marietta in 1994.[7] In July 1994, General Dynamics andMcDonnell Douglas mutually agreed to terminate Convair's contract to provide fuselages for the 300-seatMD-11 airliner.[8] Manufacturing responsibility was to be transferred to McDonnell Douglas, which said it would not preserve the operation in San Diego. General Dynamics had tried for two years to sell the Aircraft structures segment of Convair unit, but the effort ultimately failed.
The termination of the contract meant the end of the Convair Division and of General Dynamics's presence in San Diego, as well as the city's long aircraft-building tradition. The defense contractor once employed 18,000 people there, but after selling its divisions, that number is now zero. General Dynamics closed its complex inKearny Mesa, demolishing the facility between 1994 and 1996. Homes and offices now occupy the site. TheLindbergh Field plant that produced B-24s duringWorld War II was also demolished and the consolidated rental car facility now occupies this space.
TheFort Worth, Texas factory, constructed to build the B-24s, and its associated engineering locations and laboratories — all previously used to make hundreds of Consolidated B-24s,General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark fighter-bombers andGeneral Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons, along with dozens of smaller projects — were sold, along with all intellectual property and the legal rights to the products designed and built within, to theLockheed Corporation.[9] In 1996, General Dynamics deactivated all of the remaining legal entities of the Convair Division.
| Model name | First flight | Number built | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vultee XA-41 | 1944 | 1 | Prototype single-engine (28-cyl. radial) ground attack aircraft |
| Consolidated Vultee XP-81 | 1945 | 2 | Prototype combined turboprop/turbojet engine escort fighter |
| Convair 106 Skycoach | 1946 | 1 | Prototype single-engine (6-cyl. opposed-piston) general aviation aircraft |
| Stinson 108 | 1944 | 5,135 | Single-engine (4-cyl. opposed-piston) general aviation aircraft |
| Convair Model 110 | 1946 | 1 | Prototype twin-engine (18-cyl. radial) airliner |
| Convair Model 111 | 1940s | 1 | Prototype single-engine utility airplane |
| Convair Model 116 | 1946 | 1 | Roadable aircraft |
| Convair B-36 | 1946 | 384 | Combined piston/jet engine strategic bomber |
| Convair CV-240 | 1947 | Twin-engine (18-cyl. radial) airliner | |
| Convair XB-46 | 1947 | 1 | Prototype four jet-engine medium bomber |
| Convair Model 118 | 1947 | 2 | Roadable aircraft |
| Convair XC-99 | 1947 | 1 | Prototype transport aircraft |
| Convair XF-92 | 1948 | 1 | Experimental single jet engine interceptor aircraft |
| Convair C-131 Samaritan | 1949 | 512 | Twin-engine (18-cyl. radial) cargo aircraft |
| Convair CV-340 | 1951 | Twin-engine (radial) airliner | |
| Convair YB-60 | 1952 | 1 | Prototype eight-engine jet strategic bomber |
| Convair F2Y Sea Dart | 1953 | 5 | Twin jet-engine fighter seaplane |
| Convair F-102 Delta Dagger | 1953 | 1,000 | Single jet-engine interceptor |
| Convair R3Y Tradewind | 1954 | 13 | Four turboprop-engine transport flying boat |
| Convair NC-131H TIFS | 1970 | 1 | In-Flight Simulation testbed aircraft |
| Convair NB-36H | 1955 | 1 | Experimental nuclear powered bomber |
| Convair XFY Pogo | 1954 | 1 | Experimental vertical takeoff and landing fighter |
| Convair CV-440 Metropolitan | 1955 | Twin-engine (radial) airliner | |
| Convair B-58 Hustler | 1956 | 116 | Four jet-engine strategic bomber |
| Convair F-106 Delta Dart | 1956 | 342 | Single jet-engine interceptor |
| Convair 880 | 1959 | 65 | Four jet-engine airliner |
| Convair 990 Coronado | 1961 | 37 | Four jet-engine airliner |
| Convair Model 48 Charger | 1964 | 1 | Prototype twin turboprop-engine light attack aircraft |
| Convair CV-600 | 1965 | Twin turboprop-engine airliner | |
| Convair CV-640 | 1965 | Twin turboprop-engine airliner | |
| Convair XB-53 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt triple jet-engine forward-swept wing medium bomber |
| Convair X-6 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt experimental nuclear powered aircraft |
| Convair XP6Y | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt combined piston/jet engine anti-submarine flying boat |
| Convair Kingfish | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt twin jet-engine reconnaissance aircraft |
| Convair Model 23 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt twin jet-engine seaplane bomber |
| Convair Model 44 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt variable-sweep wing fighter[17] |
| Convair Model 49 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt three turboprop-engine coleopter |
| Convair Model 58-9 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt supersonic transport aircraft |
| Convair 660 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt twin jet-engine airliner[18] |
| Convair Model 200 | N/A | 0 | Unbuilt single jet-engine VTOL fighter aircraft |
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Convair Heritage: History of General Dynamics/Consolidated/Convair |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
