Consolidated Aircraft

Consolidated Aircraft

Company type	Public company
Industry	Aerospace
Predecessor	Gallaudet Aircraft Company[a] Dayton-Wright Company[b]
Founded	Buffalo, New York, United States, 1923; 101 years ago (1923)
Founder	Reuben H. Fleet
Defunct	1943; 81 years ago (1943)
Fate	Merged with Vultee Aircraft
Successor	Convair
Headquarters	San Diego, California , United States of America
Key people	Isaac M. Laddon
Parent	Aviation Corporation (1941–1943)
Subsidiaries	Consairway

The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet in Buffalo, New York, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was being closed by its parent corporation, General Motors.^[1] Consolidated became famous, during the 1920s and 1930s, for its line of flying boats. The most successful of the Consolidated patrol boats was the PBY Catalina, which was produced throughout World War II and used extensively by the Allies. Equally famous was the B-24 Liberator, a heavy bomber which, like the Catalina, saw action in both the Pacific and European theaters.

In 1943, Consolidated merged with Vultee Aircraft to form Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft, later known as Convair. The Los Angeles-based Consolidated Steel Corporation is not related.

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