The Descriptive Finding Guide for the Reuben Hollis Fleet Personal Papers SDASM.SC.10049
Alan Renga
San Diego Air and Space Museum Library and Archives
1/26/2015
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
San Diego Air and Space Museum Library and Archives
Title: Reuben H. Fleet Personal Papers
Identifier/Call Number: SDASM.SC.10049
Physical Description:
0.6 Cubic Feet
3 Boxes
Date (inclusive): 1904-1985
Abstract: Reuben Hollis Fleet was the founder of the Consolidated Aircraft Company
Reuben Hollis Fleet was born 6 March 1887 in the Grays Harbor area in the Washington Territory, near Montesano. He attended
public schools in Montesano, and was a 1906 graduate of the Culver Military Academy in Indiana, where his uncle was superintendant.
Returning to Washington, he was involved in his family timber and real estate businesses, was an officer in the Washington
National Guard, became a civic leader, and was elected to the state legislature in 1915, its youngest member. During this
period, he became more and more interested and involved in aviation. His formal introduction came when he was selected for
aviation training, reporting to the Army’s Rockwell Field, at North Island, Coronado.
He earned Junior Military Aviator (JMA) wings Number 74 in 1917 at North Island, soon after receiving a commission as a major
in the Army Signal Corps. He was assigned to a position in Washington, D.C., where he directed aviation training. He was then
transferred to England, where he graduated from the flying instructor school at Gosport. Later, he was stationed in Dayton,
Ohio, serving as business manager for McCook Field, then as the Army Air Services chief contracting officer.
Reuben H. Fleet was given the responsibility for organizing the nation’s first Air Mail service in 1918. He resigned from
Army service in 1922, joining Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation as general manager. He founded Consolidated Aircraft Corporation
in 1923, purchasing the training airplane designs of Dayton-Wright from General Motors, and renting the Gallaudet factory
in Rhode Island. In 1924, he moved to Buffalo, New York, leasing quarters in the government-built Curtiss plant. He purchased
Thomas Morse Aircraft, and moved it to Buffalo, also purchasing the Hall Aluminum Aircraft Company.
He moved his growing company to San Diego, California in 1935. In San Diego, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation became the
world leader in building military training planes, also building seaplanes in larger numbers than all other flying boat manufacturers
combined. His landplane bombers for World War II were built in greater quantity than any other aircraft ever produced. Three
weeks before Pearl Harbor Reuben H. Fleet sold his stock interest in Consolidated.
Among his many awards, he was elected to the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in San Diego in 1965, was named “Mr. San
Diego” in 1968, and was elected to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1975. Major Reuben H. Fleet passed away in San Diego
on 29 October 1975.
The collection is open to researchers by appointment.
Some copyright may be reserved. Consult with the library director for more information.
[Item], [Filing Unit], [Series Title], [Subgroups], [Record Group Title and Number], [Repository “San Diego Air & Space Museum
Library & Archives”]
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The materials in this Collection were donated to the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
This collection contains 3 boxes of correspondences, biographies, letters, interviews, photos, chronologies and newspaper
clippings. This collection also includes digitized files from 3 scrapbooks which belong to Reuben Fleet and were loaned to
the Museum for Digitization by the California Revealed Program. They are on Archive.org.
Consolidated/General Dynamics Collection
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Convair 990
Convair B-36 Peacemaker
Convair 240 Convair-Liner "Caroline"
Convair 880
Convair
Convair 240 Convair-Liner
Consolidated B-24 Liberator Family
General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division
Convair XC-99
Convair F-106 Delta Dart
Convair Model 116
Consolidated Aircraft (Firm)
Vultee Aircraft, Inc.
Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation
Fleet, Reuben Hollis
Box 01
Physical Description: Correspondence and Official Papers
1. General Correspondence (1918-1976)
2. Circular No. 188, Instruction for Final Payment of Officers Separated from the Service by Resignation or Discharge (1922)
3. General Correspondence – Consolidated Aircraft Corporation (1922-1936)
4. Correspondence, Alcoa, Future of Aluminum in Aircraft (1925)
5. Correspondence – Contracting for PT-1 (1925)
6. Correspondence – Secretary of the Treasury and Senator Fulbright – Capital Gains Tax Rate (1955)
7. Correspondence – Fleet Foundation Miscellaneous (1965-1974)
Technical Reports and Special Studies
8. Curriculum of Instruction for Flying Schools (ca. 1918)
9. Congressional Aviation Acts (1926-1938)
10. Legislative Bill, Provide for the National Security and to Accelerate the Procurement of Implements of Air Power, and
For Other Purposes (1946)
Interviews, Recollections and Historical and Biographical Information
11. Culver Military Academy – the Early Years
12. R.H. Fleet Business Interests in State of Washington
13. R.H. Fleet Washington State National Guard Service (1911)
14. Washington State Legislature Service (1915)
15. R.H. Fleet @ North Island – Signal Corps Aviation School (1917)
16. Military Service Records (1918)
17. R.H. Fleet – Military Aviator (1917-1922)
18. Founding of Air Mail Service (1918)
Box 02
Physical Description: 1. Fleet Aircraft History
2. Gallaudet Manufacturing Company – Fleet Employment (1922)
3. Air Service/Bureau of Aeronautics Organization (1922-1923)
4. Sale of Dayton-Wright to Consolidated Aircraft (1923)
5. R.H. Fleet Consolidated Move to San Diego (1935)
6. Consolidated/Convair Executive Profiles
7. Consolidated Aircraft Historical Information
8. Consolidated Aircraft Company Aircraft Produced, by Model
9. Fort Forth Facility History (1940)
10. R.H. Fleet Sale of Consolidated (1941)
11. Reuben H. Fleet Chronologies
12. Reuben H. Fleet Political Views
13. R.H. Fleet Family Information
14. Obituary and Funeral Service (1975)
Published Information and Articles
15. Air Service Aircraft Accepted, Delivered, On Order (1917-1919)
16. Performance Test of Fokker D-VIII (1921)
17. Aircraft Development since the Armistice, McCook Field (1923)
18. Fortification of Seward Harbor, D.C. Brownell (1935)
19. Address, Dedication of New Plant (San Diego), R.H. Fleet (1935)
20. Between World Wars, Balloon to the B-17, 1907-1939 (Undated)
21. The President’s Column, Consolidator – R.H. Fleet (1937-1938)
22. Planemaker Reuben Fleet, Time, The Weekly Magazine, 17 November 1941
23. Flying Doughboys, R.H. Fleet (1942)
24. Air-Borne Armies, R.H. Fleet (1942)
25. Aviation, Savior of Civilization, R.H. Fleet (1944)
26. Origin of Air Service Engineering (Early North Island History), G.C. Loening (1964)
27. McCook Field, Flight Test Center of the 20’s (1970)
28. Reuben Fleet Poetry (1974)
Newspaper Articles
29. Fleet Involvement in Tucson (1941)
30. 50th Anniversary – Airmail Pilots (1968)
31. Fleet Named “Mr. San Diego” (1969)
32. Fleet Donates Montesano Park (1969)
33. Reuben Fleet Induction – Aviation Hall of Fame (1975)
34. Reuben Fleet Obituary (1975)
35. Reuben Fleet Estate Probate (1975)
36. 50th Anniversary – Fleet Move to San Diego (1985)
37. Other Reuben Fleet Recognition
Box 03
Physical Description: Box 3
Photographs
1. Montesano (Grey’s Harbor, Washington)
2. Culver Military Academy
3. Teacher Reuben Fleet with Class (1906)
4. Terah T. Maroney - Pilot of First Flights for Boeing and Fleet (ca. 1916)
5. Aero-Repair Department, North Island (ca. 1917)
6. George Hallett Technical Training Course at North Island (1917)
7. Curtiss JN-4D and Martin TT at North Island (ca. 1917)
8. Reuben Fleet at Merced, CA (1917)
9. Reuben Fleet – Air Mail Service (1918)
10. First Air Mail Service Collection (1918)
11. Dayton-Wright Company Executives H.E. Talbott, Charles F. Kettering, Harold E. Talbott Jr. (ca. 1919)
12. PT-1 With K.B. Wolfe, Carl Cover, Ralph Royce (1925)
13. McCook Field (1919-1922)
14. Colonel Thurman H. Bane, McCook Field (ca. 1920)
15. Early Parachute Tests at McCook Field
16. Launch Consolidated Commodore “Buenos Aires” (1928)
17. Curtis Flying Service (1929)
18. Fleet Aircraft Static Test (1929)
19. Lawrence Bell
20. Military Fleetster with F. Trubee Davison, Ira C. Eaker (1930)
21. Fleet Trainer – George Newman (1939)
22. Congressional Delegation - Aleutians in December 1941 ( Includes L.B. Johnson, A.L. Gates, L.E. Gehres and Others)
23. Reuben H. Fleet Portrait (c. 1970)
24. Omnimax Camera Shoot at Stonehenge “Capture the Sun” (1973)
25. Fleet Residences
26. Fleet Family Information
27. Miscellaneous Photographs
Awards and Certificates
28. Appointment, United States Army, Captain, Air Service (1918)
29. Miscellaneous Awards and Certificates
Biographical Information
30. Miscellaneous Biographical Information
Items Removed from Collection
Fleet Photos ( Located in Archives Library)
1. Reuben H. Fleet Photos 02-F-00130—02-F-00170
2. Reuben H. Fleet Photos 02-F-00171—02-F-00206
3. Reuben H. Fleet Photos 02-F-00207—02-F-00260
4. Reuben H. Fleet Photos 02-F-00261—02-F-00313