flying boat used by Pan Am to fly routes in the Caribbean in the 1930s. Consolidated Aircraft (and later Convair) had their headquarters in
San Diego, California, on the border of
Lindbergh Field (KSAN). Consolidated's first design was one of those purchased by Fleet from Dayton-Wright, the TW-3 primary trainer, sold to the U.S. Army as the
PT-1 Trusty. In September 1924 the company moved from the Gallaudet plant in Rhode Island to new facilities in
Buffalo, New York, and in the same year won a U.S. Navy contract for a naval version of the PT-1 designated the
NY-1. In September 1935 Consolidated moved across the country to its new "Building 1", a continuous flow factory in San Diego, California. The first production
PBY Catalina was launched in San Diego Bay in 1936, and the first
XPB2Y-1 Coronado test aircraft made its first flight in 1937. Consolidated vice president
Edgar Gott was responsible for securing the company's contract to design and build the
B-24 Liberator bomber. The
XB-24 Liberator prototype made its first flight in December 1939, and the first production order was from the French in 1940, just days before their surrender to Germany; six of these
YB-24 Liberators were designated LB-30A and ferried to Britain. In 1940, Consolidated bought Hall-Aluminum Aircraft Corporation and dissolved the company. Archibald M. Hall was President of the company at the time and later became an executive of Consolidated. Several other Hall-Aluminum engineers and technical people were added to the Consolidated staff to meet defense production needs. By the fall of 1941, Consolidated was San Diego's largest employer with 25,000 employees, which eventually expanded to 45,000 by the following year. , October 1942 In November 1941, Fleet sold his 34.26% interest in Consolidated for $10.9 million to Victor Emanuel, the president of the
Aviation Corporation (the future AVCO), with the idea that Consolidated would be merged with Aviation’s Vultee subsidiary. In
1943, Consolidated merged with
Vultee Aircraft to form Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft or
Convair. In March 1953,
General Dynamics purchased a majority interest in Convair, where it continued to produce aircraft or aircraft components until being sold to
McDonnell Douglas in 1994. McDonnell Douglas shut down the division after just two years of operations in 1996. ==Aircraft==