Aviation of World War II

Home Russian

General Motors

General Motors Corporation was formed from the amalgamation of several car manufacturers. The oldest corporation was founded by R. E. Olds in Detroit in 1892 under the name Olds Motor Vehicle Company.

To avoid competition, in 1903, on the initiative of Buick director William Durant, General Motors Corporation was created, which included Olds Motor Vehicle Company and Buick, in 1909 Cadillac and Oakland (renamed Pontiac) joined them. In the following years, General Motors acquired a number of car manufacturers and companies.

In 1918, Chevrolet became part of the corporation, and in 1920 - the Canadian McLaughlin Motor Company, which later became a subsidiary of General Motors of Canada Limited. Also in 1920, Dayton Engineering Laboratories, the inventor of the starter, Charles F. Kettering, was merged, and Kettering himself became GM's scientific director.

In 1923, Alfred Sloan became president of GM (he held this post until 1956), under his leadership, foreign expansion began. In 1925, the British company Vauxhall Motors was bought, and in 1931, the German company Adam Opel; the share of the American market was also significantly increased - from 12% in 1921 to 44% in 1941.

From 1940 to 1945, GM produced $ 12.3 billion worth of military products, including 1,300 aircraft and a quarter of all aircraft engines in the United States.