Product Code Database
Vultee Aircraft, Inc., was an aircraft manufacturer founded in 1939 in Los Angeles County, California, when the Vultee Aircraft Division of the aviation holding company AVCO was reorganized as an independent company.Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp. 107–120, Cypress, CA, 2013. It had limited success before merging with the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation on March 17–18, 1943, to form the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation − or Convair.
Jerry Vultee was named vice president and chief engineer.Yenne 2009, p. 17. Vultee acquired the assets of the defunct AMC, including Lycoming Engines and Stinson Aircraft Company.
A redesigned V-1 met American Airlines' needs in the eight-passenger V-1A. American purchased 11 V-1As, but additional sales of the aircraft failed to materialize because of government concerns for single engine safety. The last two in the series, a V-1AD and a V-1AS, were built in Downey, California, after the company's manufacturing moved there.
In 1935, Vultee developed the Vultee V-11 military aircraft using the wing structure and landing gear from the V-1A, which received sizable international orders. Turkey received 40 in 1937-38, China received 30 in 1937-38, Brazil acquired 25 in 1938-39; the Soviet Union bought 4 and the manufacturing license to build 31 more. After Jerry Vultee's death in January 1938, the Air Corps ordered 7 YA-19s to establish a production relationship.
By 1937, Vultee headed his own factory in Downey, with more than a million dollars in orders for V-1s, V-1As, and V-11s.
On January 29, 1938, before Vultee became independent again, Jerry Vultee and his wife Sylvia Parker, daughter of Twentieth Century Fox film director Max Parker, died when the plane he was piloting crashed in a snowstorm near Sedona, Arizona.
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. "Coconino National Forest." USDA Forest Service. Retrieved: 26 August 2010. Donald P. Smith, Vultee's close friend and vice president of Vultee Aircraft, wrote a letter to TIME magazine about Vultee's death:
The Aviation Corporation 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 and oversaw other major production program such as the V-72 Vengeance, serving in the USAAC as the A-31 and A-35.
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.Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, pp. 140, 203, 262–3, Random House, New York, NY, 2012.Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp. 107–120, Cypress, CA, 2013. .Borth, Christy. Masters of Mass Production, p. 251, Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1945.
In 1939, according to Thompson, "The Vultee model 54A, number 141 registered NX21754, flew on July 28. In August the USAAC selected it for volume production as the BT-13, which became the standard type for the category throughout World War II." During the war, Vultee pioneered the use of women assemblers.
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Independent company
Vultee Aircraft was created in November 1939, when Vultee Aircraft Division of the AVCO was reorganized as an independent company.Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp. 107–120, Cypress, CA, 2013.
Merger
On March 17–18, 1943, Consolidated and Vultee merged, creating Convair, popularly known as Convair.Yenne 2009, p. 18. The Vultee management resigned.Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, p. 114, Cypress, CA, 2013.
Timeline
Aircraft
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
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External links
Categories: Defunct Aircraft Manufacturers Of The United States, Companies Based In Los Angeles County, California, Downey, California, Historic American Engineering Record In California, American Companies Established In 1939, Manufacturing Companies Established In 1939, Manufacturing Companies Disestablished In 1943, 1939 Establishments In California, 1943 Disestablishments In California, Defunct Manufacturing Companies Based In Greater Los Angeles, 1943 Mergers And Acquisitions, Convair
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