The company was first formed in August 1937 as the
AiRover Company to produce a new
light aircraft design. It was renamed in May 1938 to honor Lockheed's first aircraft design, the
Vega. The AiRover Model 1 was a
Lockheed Altair fitted with a
Menasco Unitwin 2-544 engine, which featured two engines driving a single shaft. The AiRover Model 2 was a new design named the
Vega Starliner. One Starliner prototype was built and tested, but the design did not go into production. In 1940, with World War II already underway in Europe, Vega changed its focus from light aircraft to military aircraft. The company began by producing five
North American NA-35 trainers under license with
North American Aviation. Production by Vega really got underway with the
Hudson, a patrol bomber designed for use by the
Royal Air Force. Vega entered a partnership with
Boeing and
Douglas, under the abbreviation BVD, to produce the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Of over 12,000 B-17s produced by war's end, 2,750 were built by Vega. The company also built two experimental B-17 variants, the
Boeing XB-38 Flying Fortress and the
Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress. By the end of November 1943, Vega had merged back into Lockheed, having far surpassed its original mission of producing light aircraft. ==Aircraft==