Established 1911 at St Hubert, Montreal, as subsidiary of
Vickers Ltd. Aircraft division formed 1922; first Canadian
company to build aircraft commercially. First contract
was for six U.K.-designed Viking IV amphibians for Canadian
Air Force. These followed from 1924 by 61 Vedette
single-engined flying-boats and amphibians, its most successful
product, designed in Canada by W.T Reid. During
the 1920s six other designs appeared: the Varuna, Vista,
Vanessa, Velos, Vigil, and Vancouver. Of these, only the
Varuna (eight) and Vancouver (six) flying-boats went into
production. In the 1930s the company license-built
Fairchild and Fokker designs and Northrop Deltas. During
the Second World War built 40 Supermarine Stranraer
flying-boats for the RCAF, 230 Consolidated OA-10 Catalinas
for the USAAF, and 149 Canso amphibians for the
RCAF, plus hulls for 600 more Catalinas and fuselages for
40 Handley Page Hampden bombers. Took over Canadian
Associated Aircraft in 1941, and in following year
moved to government factory at Cartierville, near Montreal.
In December 1944 became a separate autonomous
company under new name of Canadair Ltd, later to
become a subsidiary of General Dynamics.
