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The Journal of San Diego History
70. “Netters Defeat North American,” Consolidated News, July 16, 1941.
71. “Consolidated’s Own Beach Day,” Consolidated News, August 20, 1942.
72. “Convair’s ‘Family Day’ Is Huge Success,” Consolidated News, January 9, 1944.
73. Pescador and Aldrich, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, 58.
74. The Army signed Boeing to research the feasibility of flying fortresses, and the first B-17 design
took wing in July 1935. The new Chief and later Commanding General of the Air Corps H. H.
Arnold immediately spread enthusiasm about the B-17, but developed concerns that in the event
of war, Boeing’s Seattle plant did not possess the production capabilities to mass-produce large
quantities of aircraft. Wagner, Reuben Fleet and the Story of Consolidated, 207, 228.
75. While the thickness of the wing made the design obsolete in the postwar era, the space allowed
for greater fuel storage. K. C. Khurana, Aviation Management: Global Perspectives (New Delhi,
India: Global India Publications, 2009), 49-50.
76. Neil Hunter Raiford, Shadow: A Cottontail Bomber Crew in World War II (Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
2004), 55.
77. Ibid., 208-11.
78. Ibid., 55.
79. Starr, Embattled Dreams, 142-3.
80. B.A. LaBerge, Aircraft Production Board to A.S. Nelson, April 2, 1942, fol. B.36, Convair/General
Dynamics’ Company Papers, San Diego Air & Space Museum, CA.
81. All five plants were officially called the Liberator Production Pool. Wagner, Reuben Fleet and
the Story of Consolidated, 257.
82. Wegg, General Dynamics Aircraft, 85.
83. General Dynamics, Consolidated-Vultee Liberator: The Need, the Plane, the Crew, the Missions
(San Diego: General Dynamics, 1989), 17.
84. Wagner, Reuben Fleet and the Story of Consolidated, 265.
85. Pescador and Aldrich, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, 78.
86. Yenne, Into the Sunset, 39.
87. General Dynamics, Consolidated-Vultee Liberator, 55.
88. Yenne, Into the Sunset, 25, 39-40. In the Battle of the Atlantic, Liberators equipped with microwave
radar formed the backbone of antisubmarine forces. Of particular importance on the Liberator
combat record is the participation in the Ploesti oil field raid over Romania in 1943. Wegg,
General Dynamics Aircraft, 89.
89. Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton to Gen. H. H. Arnold, July 22, 1943, quoted in Wagner, Reuben
Fleet and the Story of Consolidated, 267.
90. “Navy Classes Liberators as Top Patrol-Bombers,” Consolidated News, February 10, 1944.
91. Catalinas participated in the defense of Port Morseby, New Guinea, and the subsequent Battle
of Coral Sea in May 1942. Wegg, General Dynamics Aircraft, 74.
92. Wagner, Reuben Fleet and the Story of Consolidated, 259.
93. Pescador and Aldrich, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, 64.
94. Yenne, Into the Sunset, 25.
95. General Dynamics, Consolidated-Vultee Liberator, 58.
96. “Reuben H. Fleet Dies; Founded Consolidated Aircraft,” San Diego Union, October 30, 1975, A-10.
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