RIM-2 Terrier missiles on USS Providence (CLG-6), 2 May 1962 (NH 98548)

Launch of Friendship 7 - GPN-2000-000686

Atlas Centaur 27 with Pioneer 10 on launch pad

Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft manufacturing company that later expanded into

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

s and

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of

Consolidated Aircraft The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 in aviation, 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 ...

and

Vultee Aircraft The Vultee Aircraft Corporation became an independent company in 1939 in Los Angeles County, California. It had limited success before merging with the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in 1943, to form the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporati ...

. In 1953, it was purchased by

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

, and operated as their Convair Division for most of its corporate history. Convair is best known for its military aircraft; it produced aircraft such as the

Convair B-36 Peacemaker The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" is a strategic bomber that was built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It had the longest win ...

and

Convair B-58 Hustler The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...

strategic bombers, and the

Convair F-102 Delta Dagger The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an American interceptor aircraft designed and manufactured by Convair. Built as part of the backbone of the United States Air Force's air defenses in the late 1950s, it entered service in 1956. Its main purpos ...

and

Convair F-106 Delta Dart The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft of the United States Air Force from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Designed as the so-called "Ultimate Interceptor", it proved to be the last specialist interceptor i ...

interceptors. It also manufactured the first

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

rockets, including the rockets that were used for the crewed orbital flights of

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

. The company's subsequent

Atlas-Centaur The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. Launches were conducted from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. Early development Convair, the ...

design continued this success and derivatives of the design remain in use as of 2020. The company also entered the jet airliner business with its

Convair 880 The Convair 880 is an American narrow-body jet airliner produced by the Convair division of General Dynamics. It was designed to compete with the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 by being smaller but faster, a niche that failed to create demand. When ...

and

Convair 990 The Convair 990 Coronado is an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner produced between 1961 and 1963 by the Convair division of American company General Dynamics. It was a stretched version of its earlier Convair 880 produced in respon ...

designs. These were smaller than contemporary aircraft like the

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...

and

Douglas DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in Ju ...

, but somewhat faster than both. This combination of features failed to find a profitable niche and the company exited the airliner design business. However, the manufacturing capability built up for these projects proved very profitable and the company became a major subcontractor for airliner fuselages. In 1994, most of the company's divisions were sold by General Dynamics to

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...

and Lockheed, with the remaining components deactivated in 1996.

History

Origins

Consolidated produced important aircraft in the early years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, especially the

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

heavy bomber and the

PBY Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wit ...

seaplane for the

U.S. armed forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

and their allies. The Catalina remained in production through May 1945, and more than 4,000 were built. What was soon called "Convair" (first unofficially, and then officially), was created in 1943 by the merger of the

Company and the

Company. This merger produced a large airplane company, ranked fourth among United States corporations by value of wartime production contracts, higher than the giants like

Douglas Aircraft The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

, and Lockheed. Convair always had most of its research, design, and manufacturing operations in

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

, and nearby counties, though other locations were involved as well.

Jet Age, Cold War, and Space Age

In March 1953, all of the Convair company was bought by the

General Dynamics Corporation General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Unit ...

, a conglomerate of military and high-technology companies, and it became officially the Convair Division within General Dynamics. After the beginning of the

Jet Age The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines, and by the social change this brought about. Jet airliners were able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older pisto ...

of military fighters and bombers, Convair was a pioneer of the delta-winged aircraft design, along with the French

Dassault Dassault Group (; also GIM Dassault or Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault SAS) is a French group of companies established in 1929 with the creation of Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (now Dassault Aviation) by Marcel Dassault, and led by son Ser ...

aircraft company, which designed and built the Mirage fighter planes. One of Convair's most famous products was the ten-engined

Convair B-36 The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" is a strategic bomber that was built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It had the longest win ...

strategic bomber, burning four

turbojets The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

and turning six pusher propellers driven by

Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major The Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major is an American 28-cylinder four-row radial piston aircraft engine designed and built during World War II. First run in 1944, at , it is the largest-displacement aviation piston engine to be mass-produced in ...

radial piston engines. The

was the largest landbased piston engined bomber in the world. The

Atlas missile The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dyna ...

, the

F-102 Delta Dagger The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an American interceptor aircraft designed and manufactured by Convair. Built as part of the backbone of the United States Air Force's air defenses in the late 1950s, it entered service in 1956. Its main purpos ...

and

F-106 Delta Dart The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft of the United States Air Force from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Designed as the so-called "Ultimate Interceptor", it proved to be the last specialist interceptor i ...

delta-winged interceptors, and the delta-winged

B-58 Hustler The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...

supersonic intercontinental nuclear bomber were all Convair products. For a period of time in the 1960s, Convair manufactured its own line of jet commercial airliners, the

and

Convair 990 Coronado The Convair 990 Coronado is an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner produced between 1961 and 1963 by the Convair division of American company General Dynamics. It was a stretched version of its earlier Convair 880 produced in respon ...

, but this did not turn out to be profitable. However, Convair found that it was profitable to be an aviation subcontractor and manufacture large subsections of airliners — such as fuselages — for the larger airliner companies,

, and Lockheed. In the 1950s, Convair shifted money and effort to its missile and rocket projects, producing the

Terrier missile The Convair RIM-2 Terrier was a two-stage medium-range naval surface-to-air missile (SAM), and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. It underwent significant upgrades while in service, starting with be ...

ship-launched surface-to-air system for the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

during the 1960s and 1970s. Convair's

Atlas rocket Atlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas. The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Atlas was ...

was originally developed in 1957 as an

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...

for the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. It was replaced in 1962 by the room-temperature liquid-fueled

Titan II missile The Titan II was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company from the earlier Titan I missile. Titan II was originally designed and used as an ICBM, but was later adapted as a medium-lift space l ...

and the solid-fueled

Minuteman missile The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. , the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States and r ...

. The Atlas rocket transitioned into a civilian launch vehicle and was used for the first orbital crewed U.S. space flights during

in 1962 and 1963. The

became a very reliable booster for launching of satellites and continued to evolve, remaining in use into the 21st century, when combined with the

Centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

upper stage to form the

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

for launching geosynchronous

communication satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

s and

space probe A space probe is an artificial satellite that travels through space to collect scientific data. A space probe may orbit Earth; approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; or ent ...

s. The Centaur rocket was also designed, developed, and produced by Convair, and it was the first widely used outer space rocket to use the all-

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

fuel-oxidizer combination of

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...

and

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

. The use of this liquid hydrogen – liquid oxygen combination in the Centaur was an important direct precursor to the use of the same fuel-oxidizer combination in the Saturn

S-II The S-II (pronounced "S-two") was the second stage of the Saturn V rocket. It was built by North American Aviation. Using liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) it had five J-2 engines in a quincunx pattern. The second stage accelerated ...

second stage and the Saturn

S-IVB The S-IVB (pronounced "S-four-B") was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 (rocket engine), J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twi ...

third stage of the gigantic

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...

moon rocket of the Apollo program. The S-IVB had earlier also been used as the second stage of the smaller

Saturn IB The Saturn IB (also known as the uprated Saturn I) was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage (, ...

rocket, such as the one used to launch

Apollo 7 Apollo 7 (October 1122, 1968) was the first crewed flight in NASA's Apollo program, and saw the resumption of human spaceflight by the agency after the fire that killed the three Apollo 1 astronauts during a launch rehearsal test on Ja ...

. The Centaur upper stage was first designed and developed for launching the

Surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

lunar landers, beginning in 1966, to augment the

delta-V Delta-''v'' (more known as "change in velocity"), symbolized as ∆''v'' and pronounced ''delta-vee'', as used in spacecraft flight dynamics, is a measure of the impulse per unit of spacecraft mass that is needed to perform a maneuver such as ...

of the Atlas rockets and give them enough payload capability to deliver the required mass of the Surveyors to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. More than 100 Convair-produced Atlas-Centaur rockets (including those with their successor designations) were used to successfully launch over 100 satellites, and among their many other outer-space missions, they launched the

Pioneer 10 ''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to ach ...

and

Pioneer 11 ''Pioneer 11'' (also known as ''Pioneer G'') is a robotic space probe launched by NASA on April 5, 1973, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar winds, and cosmic rays. It was the first probe to encounter ...

space probes, the first two to be launched on trajectories that carried them out of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

. In addition to aircraft, missiles, and space vehicles, Convair developed the large

Charactron Charactron was a U.S. registered trademark (number 0585950, 23 February 1954) of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair) for its shaped electron beam cathode ray tube. Charactron CRTs performed functions of both a display device and a r ...

vacuum tubes, a form of

cathode-ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictur ...

(CRT) computer display with a shaped mask to form characters, and to give an example of a minor product, the

CORDIC CORDIC (for "coordinate rotation digital computer"), also known as Volder's algorithm, or: Digit-by-digit method Circular CORDIC (Jack E. Volder), Linear CORDIC, Hyperbolic CORDIC (John Stephen Walther), and Generalized Hyperbolic CORDIC (GH C ...

algorithms, which is widely used today to calculate

trigonometric function In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all ...

s in

calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized ...

field-programmable gate array A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturinghence the term '' field-programmable''. The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware d ...

s, and other small electronic systems.

Dissolution

General Dynamics announced the sale of the Missile Systems Division segment of Convair to

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other produ ...

in May 1992 and the Space Systems Division segment to

Martin Marietta The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin Mari ...

in 1994. In July 1994, General Dynamics and

mutually agreed to terminate Convair's contract to provide fuselages for the 300-seat

MD-11 The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American tri-jet wide-body airliner manufactured by American McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and later by Boeing. Following DC-10 development studies, the MD-11 program was launched on December 30, 1986. Assembly of t ...

airliner. Manufacturing responsibility was to be transferred to McDonnell Douglas, which said it would not preserve the operation in San Diego. General Dynamics had tried for two years to sell the Aircraft structures segment of Convair unit, but the effort ultimately failed. The termination of the contract meant the end of the Convair Division and of General Dynamics' presence in San Diego, as well as the city's long aircraft-building tradition. The defense contractor once employed 18,000 people there but after selling its divisions, that number is now zero. General Dynamics closed its complex in

Kearny Mesa Kearny Mesa is a community in the central part of San Diego, California. It is bounded by State Route 52 to the north, Interstate 805 to the west, Aero Drive to the south, and Interstate 15 to the east. Adjacent communities include Serra Mesa, C ...

, demolishing the facility between 1994 and 1996. Homes and offices now occupy the site. The

Lindbergh Field San Diego International Airport , formerly known as Lindbergh Field, is an international airport northwest of Downtown San Diego, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.. US Federa ...

plant that produced B-24s during

was also demolished and the consolidated rental car facility now occupies this space. The

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

factory, constructed to build the B-24s, and its associated engineering locations and laboratories — all previously used to make hundreds of Consolidated B-24s,

General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production variants of the F-111 had roles that included ground attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons c ...

fighter-bombers and

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...

s, along with dozens of smaller projects — were sold, along with all intellectual property and the legal rights to the products designed and built within, to the

Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but ot ...

. In 1996, General Dynamics deactivated all of the remaining legal entities of the Convair Division.

Timeline

Central Manufacturing Co. of Connersville, Indiana
, a history of Cord, AVCO, and others * 1923 Consolidated Aircraft Corporation formed by Major Reuben H. Fleet * 1934

AVCO Avco Corporation is a subsidiary of Textron which operates Textron Systems Corporation and Lycoming. History The Aviation Corporation was formed on March 2, 1929, to prevent a takeover of CAM-24 airmail service operator Embry-Riddle Compa ...

acquired the Airplane Development Corporation from Cord and formed the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation (AMC) * 1936 AMC liquidated to form the Vultee Aircraft Division, an autonomous subsidiary of AVCO * 1939 Vultee Aircraft Division of AVCO reorganized as an independent company known as Vultee Aircraft, Inc. * 1941 Consolidated Aircraft Corporation sold to AVCO * 1943 Consolidated-Vultee, formed by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft; still controlled by AVCO * 1947 Convair acquired by the

Atlas Corporation The Atlas Corporation is an American investment firm that was formed in 1928. Atlas invested in and managed a number of major US companies during the 20th century and has a number of investments in natural resources. History Atlas corporation wa ...

* 1953-1954 Convair acquired by

* 1985 General Dynamics formed their "Space Systems Division" from the Convair Space Program * 1992 Missile Systems Division sold to

* 1993 The Fort Worth facility sold to

* 1994 Space Systems Division sold to

(now

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

) * 1994 Convair Aircraft Structures unit sold to

(now

)

Products

Aircraft

Missiles and rockets

RTV-A-2 Hiroc The RTV-A-2 Hiroc (high-altitude rocket) was a product of the United States' first effort to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The project was named MX-774. The project was canceled in 1947, but leftover funds were used to bu ...

(1946) – high-altitude rocket *

SAM-N-2 Lark The Lark project was a solid-fuel boosted, liquid-fueled surface-to-air missile developed by the United States Navy to meet the kamikaze threat. It was developed as a crash program to introduce a medium-range defensive layer that would attack tar ...

(late 1940s) – surface-to-air naval missile *

MX-774 The RTV-A-2 Hiroc (high-altitude rocket) was a product of the United States' first effort to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The project was named MX-774. The project was canceled in 1947, but leftover funds were used to bu ...

(1948) – precursor to Atlas *

XSM-74 The Convair XSM-74 was a subsonic, jet-powered, ground-launched decoy cruise missile. Development In March 1953, the United States Air Force released General Operational Requirement (GOR) 16 which called for a long range decoy missile to increas ...

(1950s) – decoy cruise missile *

RIM-2 Terrier The Convair RIM-2 Terrier was a two-stage medium-range naval surface-to-air missile (SAM), and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. It underwent significant upgrades while in service, starting with be ...

(1951) – surface-to-air naval missile *

RIM-24 Tartar The General Dynamics RIM-24 Tartar was a medium-range naval surface-to-air missile (SAM), and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. The Tartar was the third of the so-called "3 T's", the three primary ...

(1962) – surface-to-air naval missile *

XGAM-71 Buck Duck The Convair XGAM-71 Buck Duck was an air-launched decoy missile that was developed by Convair in the early 1950s. It was intended to have the same radar signature as the Strategic Air Command's B-36 bomber, thereby allowing it to disrupt the ...

(1955) – decoy missile *

Sky Scorcher Sky Scorcher was a nuclear-armed air-to-air missile proposed to the United States Air Force in the 1950s. Intended for use as a weapon for the disruption of enemy bomber formations, it failed to find favor among Air Force planners and did not unde ...

(1956) – proposed air-to-air missile *

Pye Wacket Pye Wacket was the codename for an experimental Lens (geometry), lenticular-form air-to-air missile developed by the Convair Division of the General Dynamics Corporation in 1957. Intended as a defensive missile for the B-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 bomber, ...

(1957) – air-to-air defensive missile project, cancelled during development *

FIM-43 Redeye The General Dynamics FIM-43 Redeye is a man-portable surface-to-air missile system. It uses passive infrared homing to track its target. Production began in 1962 andin anticipation of the Redeye II, which later became the FIM-92 Stingerended in t ...

(1960) – man-portable surface-to-air missile *

Atlas (rocket family) Atlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas. The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Atlas was ...

(1959) The Atlas civilian space booster **

Atlas E/F The Atlas E/F (or SB-1A) was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket built using parts of decommissioned SM-65 Atlas missiles. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets. The first stage was built using parts taken from d ...

Atlas G The Atlas G, also known as Atlas G Centaur-D1AR was an American expendable launch system derived from the Atlas-Centaur. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was used to launch seven communication satellites during the mid to late ...

Atlas H The Atlas H was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was used to launch five clusters of NOSS satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office. Two fli ...

Atlas LV-3B The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a human-rated expendable launch system used as part of the United States Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit. Manufactured by Convair, it wa ...

Atlas SLV-3 The Atlas SLV-3, or SLV-3 Atlas was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas / SM-65D Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets. The Atlas SLV-3 was a stage and a half rocket, built as a standardized ...

Atlas-Able The Atlas-Able was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was used to launch several Pioneer spacecraft towards the Moon. Of the five Atlas-Able rockets built, ...

Atlas-Agena The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978. It was used to launch the first five Mariner uncrewed ...

SM-65 Atlas The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dyna ...

– The Atlas ICBM Air Force missile (1957) ** Convair X-11 and SM-65A Atlas (1957) – Atlas A prototype ** Convair X-12 and SM-65B Atlas (1958 – Atlas B prototype **

SM-65C Atlas The SM-65C Atlas, or Atlas C was a prototype of the Atlas missile. First flown on 24 December 1958, the Atlas C was the final development version of the Atlas rocket, prior to the operational Atlas D. It was originally planned to be used as the fi ...

SM-65D Atlas The SM-65D Atlas, or Atlas D, was the first operational version of the U.S. Atlas missile. Atlas D was first used as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to deliver a nuclear weapon payload on a suborbital trajectory. It was later dev ...

SM-65E Atlas The SM-65E Atlas, or Atlas-E, was an operational variant of the Atlas missile. It first flew on October 11, 1960, and was deployed as an operational ICBM from September 1961 until April 1966. Following retirement as an ICBM, the Atlas-E, along wi ...

SM-65F Atlas The SM-65F Atlas, or Atlas-F, was the final operational variant of the SM-65 Atlas, Atlas missile, only differing from the Atlas E in the launch facility and guidance package used. It first flew on 8 August 1961, and was deployed as an operational ...

(1962) and its successor-designations, all of which combined an Atlas booster with a centaur upper stage – a civilian rocket to launch spacecraft to outer space. *

(1962) *

BGM-109 The Tomahawk () Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy and Royal Navy in ship and submarine-based land-attack operations. Under contract fro ...

Tomahawk long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile. *

AGM-129 The AGM-129 ACM (Advanced Cruise Missile) was a low-observable, subsonic, turbofan-powered, air-launched cruise missile originally designed and built by General Dynamics and eventually acquired by Raytheon Missile Systems. Prior to its withdrawal ...

Advanced Cruise Missile (1983) – stealthy, nuclear, air-launched cruise missile

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Aerospacelegacyfoundation.org

* Employee newspaper,
Convairiety
'' at the Fort Worth Public Library Archives. {{Authority control Aerospace companies of the United States Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Manufacturing companies based in California Technology companies based in San Diego Companies based in San Diego County, California Manufacturing companies established in 1943 Technology companies established in 1943 1943 establishments in California Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1996 Defunct companies based in California General Dynamics 1953 mergers and acquisitions Lockheed Corporation McDonnell Douglas mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1943 Defunct technology companies based in California