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The Journal of San Diego History
Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft layoff line at the end of World War II. c. 1945. ©SDHC 84:14836-156.
lives. The B-24 Liberator—the most-produced heavy bomber model in U.S. history—
helped ensure victory in the war. Consolidated, later known as Convair, laid the
foundations for San Diego’s aerospace industry, stimulated federal investment, and
fostered a regional wartime identity. “Some people complain about the airplane
noises in San Diego,” Major Ruben H. Fleet, the company’s founder remarked,
“but I sort of like it. The only time I look up is when I hear an engine missing.” 96
Notes
1. “Boom Town: San Diego,” Life, July 28, 1941, 67.
2. “Sound of B-24 over Jungle is Symphony, Army Chaplain Writes,” Consolidated News, May 7, 1942.
3. Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft Corporation War Plans Survey, San Diego Division to Lt. Col.
Chandler, October 31, 1945, fol. B.36, Convair/General Dynamics’ Company Papers, San Diego
Air & Space Museum, CA [hereafter cited as War Plans Survey, Convair Papers].
4. At that time, of the Signal Corp’s seventy-three planes, thirty of them were located in San Diego.
William Wagner, Reuben Fleet and the Story of Consolidated Aircraft (Fallbrook, CA: Aero Publishers,
1976), 24. Wagner and his team conducted multiple oral histories with Fleet to complete his book.
5. Ibid., 41.
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