Planes and Choppers Photos

General Dynamics originated as the Electric Boat company dating right back to 1899. In 1946 it bought Canadair and took over production, changing its name to General Dynamics in 1952. The next year came the purchase of Convair, which like Canadair worked as an independent division within the General Dynamics umbrella. In 1961 GD reorganized into an Eastern Group in New York and a Western Group in San Diego, California, with the latter taking over all of the aerospace activities and dropping the Convair brand name from its aircraft in the process. GD partnered with Grumman to develop the F-111, and then produced the highly successful F-16. In 1976, General Dynamics sold the struggling Canadair back to the Canadian government. It acquired Cessna in 1985, but sold that company toTextron 1992. The Fort Worth aircraft production facility was sold to Lockheed in 1993. In 1999 GD acquired Gulfstream Aerospace.