In 2023, the San Diego Air & Space Museum received a grant of $334,000 from the National Endowment of the Humanities to digitize 120,000 photographic negatives from the Consolidated/Convair/General Dynamics Still Image Collection. This exhibit has been curated in an effort to highlight and further provide access to some of the images in this collection.

Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded by Reuben H. Fleet in 1923 and moved its headquarters to San Diego, California, starting in 1933. In March 1943, Consolidated’s merger with Vultee Aircraft Corporation gave birth to Convair. Just over ten years later in 1954, General Dynamics purchased a majority share in Convair and it became a division of the greater General Dynamics corporation.

A Convair employee working on the Atlas rocket production line on February 5th, 1960. 

The aircraft, missiles, and other aviation components produced by Convair show the high quality of the company's products. The point is fortified by their motto “Nothing short of right is right.” But, premier aircraft and missiles were not the only concern of Convair; their employees were paramount to the success of the company. Because their work speaks for itself, this exhibit aims to highlight some of the extracurricular events put on by Convair for their employees’ enjoyment. All of the following images are from the General Dynamics Convair Astronautics Divison between 1960 and 1961.

Convair Astronautics staff at complex 567-6 on May 18th, 1961. 

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