Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Maj. Reuben H. Fleet. In 1935, Consolidated relocated to San Diego due to favorable weather conditions, proximity to North Island NAS, and generous financial agreements. Consolidated became well-known or its line of flying boats – the PBY Catalina in particular. Almost a decade after Consolidated began producing aircraft in San Diego, Consolidated merged with Vultee Aircraft Corporation to form Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (informally known as CVAC or Convair) in March 1943. General Dynamics purchased a majority interest, formally renaming the division as Convair in 1954 and it continued to produce aircraft and components until General Dynamics began divesting itself of its aircraft and spacecraft divisions in the mid-nineties.

For half a century, Convair was the largest civilian employer in San Diego. Employment peaked in 1943 at 41,000 employees, of which forty percent were women. “Nothing short of right is right” was a popular slogan espoused by Consolidated to instill pride of workmanship in its thousands of employees. Consolidated/Convair was responsible for building some of the most significant aircraft in aerospace history, including the PBY Catalina, the B-24 Liberator, the Convair 240/340/440 series, Convair 880 and 990 airliner, the F-102 and F-106 interceptors, and the nation’s most reliable launch vehicle: the Atlas.

Convairiety was the company newsletter, distributed to keep Convair (later General Dynamics) employees at San Diego, Pomona and Antelope Valley, California, and Daingerfield and Fort Worth, Texas, connected. The first newsletter was published September 1, 1948, and had readers vote on what to name the newsletter. It was founded with the following objectives: “1: To help make Convair the best aircraft manufacturing company in the business. 2: To help make Convair the best place to work in the business. 3: To help make Convair personnel the best informed in the business.” The newsletter was published every other Wednesday and chronicled life at Convair, employee profiles, aviation news, local news excerpts, and a variety of other pieces, with different editions later published for different branches and divisions. September 13, 1961, saw the first issue of GD News, and the end of that iteration of Convairiety.

The Convair and Space Systems Divisions continued to produce aircraft, aircraft structures, and the Atlas missile until the early 1990s. The Convair tactical missile program was sold to Hughes Aircraft Company in 1992. The Space Systems Division was sold to Lockheed Martin in 1993, and remaining Convair operations – primarily production of the MD-11 fuselage – were sold to McDonnell Douglas in 1994.

Link to the collection's Descriptive Finding Guide. 

Link to these newsletters on Archive.org.