HISTORY
Gerard "Jerry" Freebairn
Vultee (1900–1938) and Vance
Breese (1904–1973) started
the
Airplane Development
Corporation
in early 1932 after American
Airlines showed great
interest in their
six-passenger V-1 design.
Soon after, Errett Lobban
(E.L.) Cord bought all 500
shares of stock in the
company and the Airplane
Development Corporation
became a Cord subsidiary.
Due to the Air Mail Act of
1934, AVCO established the
Aviation Manufacturing
Corporation
(AMC) on November 30, 1934
through the acquisition of
Cord's holdings, including
Vultee's Airplane
Development Corporation. AMC
was liquidated on January 1,
1936 and Vultee Aircraft
Division was formed as an
autonomous subsidiary of
AVCO. Jerry Vultee was named
vice president and chief
engineer.
Vultee acquired the assets
of the defunct AMC,
including Lycoming and
Stinson Aircraft Company.
Vultee Aircraft was created
in November 1939, when
Vultee Aircraft Division of
AVCO was reorganized as an
independent company.
Meanwhile, Vultee and Breese
had redesigned the V-1 to
meet American Airlines'
needs and created the
eight-passenger V-1A.
American purchased 11 V-1As,
but the plane ultimately
failed due to safety
concerns about a
single-engine plane and the
advent of the twin-engine
Douglas DC-2s and DC-3s.
Vultee redesigned the V-1
into the V-11 attack
aircraft for the United
States Army Air Corps, but
it received few initial
orders.
By 1937 Jerry was heading
his own factory in Downey,
California with more than a
million dollars in orders
for V-1s, V-1As and V-11s.
In 1938, before he could see
Vultee become an independent
company, Jerry Vultee and
his wife Sylvia Parker, the
daughter of Twentieth
Century Fox 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 at the end of
Coconino Forestry trail
named in honor of Vultee
Arch, a natural rock arch
(named for Jerry Vultee)
near the site of the plane
crash.
AVCO hired Dick Palmer away
from Howard Hughes to take
Jerry'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 AVCO Vultee
division became the separate
Vultee Aircraft Corporation
in 1939.
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.
On March 17, 1943,
Consolidated and Vultee
officially merged, creating
Consolidated Vultee Aircraft
Corporation, popularly known
as Convair.
The Vultee management
resigned.
Source:
Wikipedia
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