Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
General Dynamics history
General Dynamics company history timeline
In 1899, Isaac Rice bought the company from Holland and renamed it Electric Boat Company.
Electric Boat was responsible for developing the United States Navy's first modern submarines which were purchased by the Navy in 1900.
Electric Boat gained a reputation for unscrupulous arms dealing in 1904–05, when it sold submarines to Japan and Russia, who were then at war.
By 1904 Holland was making $90 a week as chief engineer while his company, now firmly under Rice's control, was selling submarines for $300,000 each.
In 1905 Electric Boat came under government scrutiny for unscrupulously selling submarines to both Japan and Russia while the two countries were at war with each other.
In 1906, Electric Boat subcontracted submarine construction to the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, to build the submarines they had designed and won contracts for.
By 1914 the British Navy was purchasing submarines from Electric Boat, placing the submarine squarely in the arena of new, necessary war machinery.
Isaac Rice died in 1915 and was replaced by his associate Henry Carse.
Public CompanyIncorporated: 29 May 1925 as Electric Boat CompanyEmployees: 92,600Sales: $8.892 billionMarket value: $3.273 billionStock Index: New York
In 1933 Electric Boat acquired ownership of a shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, to build submarines.
The first submarine built in Groton to be delivered to the United States Navy was the USS Cuttlefish in 1934.
The new orders led to the revitalization of Electric Boat, now led by John Jay Hopkins, appointed in 1937 by the retiring Lawrence Spear, who himself had taken over when Henry Carse retired.
Canadair Ltd. (“Canada” + “air”) was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer formally created on 11 November 1944 as a separate entity by the government of Canada.
Needing to diversify, Electric Boat purchased Canadair from the Canadian government in 1945 for $22 million.
Electric Boat was cash-flush but lacking in work following World War II, during which it produced 80 submarines for the Navy, with its workforce shrinking from 13,000 to 4,000 by 1946.
It was up for sale, and Hopkins bought the company for $10 million in 1946.
General Dynamics is formed as the parent of the Electric Boat Company, which had owned Canadair since 1947
By the early 1950’s, Canadair’s importance overshadowed Electric Boat; their business advisers even suggested that Canadair purchase Electric Boat and operate it as a subsidiary.
Aircraft production became increasingly important at Canadair, and Hopkins argued that the name "Electric Boat" was no longer appropriate—so Electric Boat was reorganized as General Dynamics on 24 April 1952.
The firm was incorporated under its present name in 1952.
General Dynamics purchased Convair from the Atlas Group in March 1953.
Electric Boat enjoyed greater success with nuclear power; in 1955 it launched the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus.
Hopkins fell seriously ill during 1957 and was eventually replaced by Frank Pace later that year.
Crown offered to merge his profitable Material Services Corporation with General Dynamics in exchange for a 20 percent share of the new company's stock, and the proposal was accepted in 1959.
Chicago industrialist Henry Crown became the company's largest shareholder and merged his Material Service Corporation with GD in 1959.
Frank Pace retired under pressure in 1962 and Roger Lewis, former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force and Pan American Airways CEO, was brought in as CEO. The company recovered, then fell back into the same struggles.
Under Lewis, General Dynamics purchased the Quincy shipbuilding works from Bethlehem Steel in 1963 for $5 million.
The F-111 that resulted first flew in December 1964.
In May 1965, GD reorganized into 12 operating divisions based on product lines.
Pamphlet for the employee family day and general public open house held at the Convair plant in Fort Worth, Texas in June 1968.
Over the next few years, Crown continued to purchase substantial numbers of shares of voting stock, expanding his interest until he emerged in 1970 with control over the board of directors.
In 1971 the Electric Boat division and its chief competitor, Newport News Shipbuilding, were awarded government contracts to manufacture the new 668, or Los Angeles, class submarine.
In 1972, GD bid on the USAF's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) project.
GD's YF-16 first flew in January 1974 and proved to have slightly better performance than the YF-17 in head-to-head testing.
In 1976, General Dynamics sold the struggling Canadair back to the Canadian government for $38 million.
In October of 1977 David Lewis transferred Takis Veliotis from Quincy to Groton, with instructions to reform the operation.
Controversy stung General Dynamics again in 1977 when Admiral Rickover publicly denounced Electric Boat for its poor workmanship on 18 Los Angeles submarines.
The lower-priced F-15 took a significant portion of the fighter market away from General Dynamics, whose Fort Worth Division began producing the F-16 in 1978.
1978: Fort Worth Division begins production of the F-16 combat fighter.
In 1981 General Dynamics purchased the battle tank division of Chrysler for $336 million, renamed it as the Land Systems unit, and won a government contract to manufacture the new M-1 tank.
GD purchased Chrysler's defense divisions in 1982, renaming them General Dynamics Land Systems.
By 1984, General Dynamics had four divisions: Convair in San Diego, General Dynamics-Fort Worth, General Dynamics-Pomona, and General Dynamics-Electronics.
Curley, John, “General Dynamics Is Facing the Issue of How to Grow As Defense Outlays Slow,” Wall Street Journal, April 8, 1985.
In 1985 he purchased Cessna Aircraft Co.
Goodwin, Jacob, Brotherhood of Arms: General Dynamics and the Business of Defending America, New York: Random House, 1985.
In 1985, GD also acquired Cessna.
In 1985 a further reorganization created the Space Systems Division from the Convair Space division.
Franklin, Roger, The Defender: The Story of General Dynamics, New York: Harper, 1986.
Canadair was acquired by Bombardier Inc. in 1986.
Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover and General Dynamics, New York: Harper, 1987.
Henry Crown, still GD's largest shareholder, died on 15 August 1990.
General Dynamics, which had suffered a $578 million loss in 1990, recovered to realize a $305 million profit the following year.
Sales have returned to pre-1990 figures, but the additional benefit of a market capitalization of $17 billion, up from just $1 billion in 1990.
In January 1991, William A. Anders was assigned to reorganize General Dynamics according to the new market realities.
In 1991 alone, as General Dynamics whittled away at its employee roster, Business Week reported that 25 top managers received $18 million in incentive bonuses.
In 1991 the United States Navy cancelled General Dynamics' contract to build the A-12 fighter jet because the project was so far behind schedule and over budget.
In 1991, the company sold its Data Systems Division.
By June 1992, Anders had cut 25 percent of the work force (24,800 employees) and put $1.7 billion in assets up for sale.
1992: Cessna is sold to Textron Inc.; company headquarters is moved to Falls Church, Virginia.
1993: The Fort Worth Division is sold to Lockheed Corporation.
Gains from divestments were rolled back to shareholders, and, by 1993, almost $600 million in debt was paid, which helped boost the company’s share price.
Anders pronounced the transformation of General Dynamics complete in 1993’s annual report.
That year, Anders relinquished the chief executive office to former president James Mellor and assumed General Dynamics’ chair as a transitional measure through April 1994.
Even after the special distributions to shareholders, the company still had more than $1 billion in cash and virtually no debt by late 1994.
The remaining Convair Aircraft Structure unit was sold to McDonnell Douglas in 1994.
In 1995, General Dynamics purchased the privately held Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath, Maine, for $300 million, diversifying its shipbuilding portfolio to include United States Navy surface ships such as guided-missile destroyers.
In 1996 the company’s Land Systems Division was awarded a $217 million contract to build a new amphibious assault vehicle for the United States Marines.
The remains of the Convair Division were simply closed in 1996.
In mid-1997 Nicholas D. Chabraja took over as CEO from the retiring Mellor, having previously served as an executive vice-president and general counsel and having played a prominent role in the company's post-Cold War transformation.
Then, in 1997 it took the bold step of buying aircraft manufacturer Gulfstream for $4.5 billion, making its first substantial move outside the defense sector.
In the final decision in 1998 the court ordered the Navy to pay $1.2 billion plus interest.
In 1998, the company acquired NASSCO, formerly National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, for $415 million.
The Navy appealed the decision, and in 1999 the Court of Appeals sent the case back to the Court of Federal Claims to further investigate whether the Navy's termination of the contract was justified.
GD's exit from the aviation world was short-lived, and in 1999 the company acquired Gulfstream Aerospace.
General Dynamics reported net income of $901 million on sales of $10.36 billion for 2000.
According to Forbes, it is considered one of the top 2000 largest public companies in the world.
The company says it has no role in constructing or operating detention centers, and that its contracts to provide training and technical services began in 2000 and have spanned across four presidential administrations.
Early in 2001 the company acquired Primex Technologies Inc., maker of munitions, propellants, satellite propulsion systems, and electronics products, for $520 million.
creswell, julie, and julie schlosser, and jessica sung. "armed and dangerous: defense stocks look like safe havens but will leave investors shell shocked."fortune, 13 march 2002.
squeo, anne marie. "the contrarian: an industry outsider cuts against the grain at general dynamics—chabraja avoids satellites, glitzy missile defense, focuses on tanks, ships—a rainy-night test of mettle."the wall street journal, 13 march 2002.
In late 2002, the company announced plans to purchase General Motors Corp.’s defense business.
President Bush submitted a request to Congress for $328 billion for defense spending in fiscal year 2002, an 11 percent increase.
In fact, during fiscal 2003 the Pentagon set forth a $122.6 billion budget proposal for weapons procurement and research and development.
In 2003, it purchased the defense divisions of General Motors as well.
Revenues for the Combat Systems unit were $6 billion in 2006.
In 2006, General Dynamics bought Anteon International Corporation, an information technology specialist whose customers included defense, homeland security, and intelligence agencies.
On August 19, 2008, GD agreed to pay $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the US Government claiming that a GD unit fraudulently billed the government for defectively manufactured parts used in US military aircraft and submarines.
Force Protection, Inc. was acquired by General Dynamics Land Systems in November 2011 for $350 million.
In 2014, the government of Canada announced it had selected the General Dynamics Land Systems subsidiary in London, Ontario, to produce Light Armoured Vehicles for Saudi Arabia as part of a $10 billion deal with the Canadian Commercial Corporation.
It was announced in September 2018 that the United States Navy awarded contracts for 10 new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers from General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries.
In 2018, General Dynamics acquired information technology services giant CSRA for $9.7 billion, and merged it with GDIT.
Former United States Secretary of Defense General Jim Mattis re-joined the company's board of directors in August 2019.
In September 2020, General Dynamics announced a strategic counter-drone partnership, providing General Dynamics' global network with access to Dedrone's complete drone detection and defeat technology.
On December 26, 2020, General Dynamics confirmed that their business division General Dynamics Land Systems was awarded a $4.6 billion contract by the United States Army for M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks.
"General Dynamics Corporation ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2022). https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/general-dynamics-corporation-2
Rate General Dynamics' efforts to communicate its history to employees.
General Dynamics jobs
Do you work at General Dynamics?
Does General Dynamics communicate its history to new hires?
General Dynamics competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northrop Grumman | 1939 | $41.0B | 97,000 | 2,855 |
| Lockheed Martin | 1995 | $71.0B | 115,000 | 4,740 |
| Xerox | 1906 | $6.2B | 24,700 | 397 |
| Boeing | 1916 | $66.5B | 141,582 | 3,345 |
| Axsys Technologies | 1997 | $19.0M | 50 | - |
| United | 1926 | $57.1B | 93,000 | 115 |
| American Airlines | 1930 | $54.2B | 133,700 | 237 |
General Dynamics history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of General Dynamics, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about General Dynamics. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at General Dynamics. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by General Dynamics. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of General Dynamics and its employees or that of Zippia.
General Dynamics may also be known as or be related to general dynamics nassco, General Dynamics Corporation, general dynamics ordnance & tactical systems, general dynamics ais, General Dynamics Electric Boat, GENERAL DYNAMICS CORPORATION, General Dynamics, general dynamics c4 systems and general dynamics advanced information systems.