Solar Turbines

  The Solar Aircraft Company was started in San Diego by George H. Prudden and seven other local San Diego investors as the Prudden-San Diego Airplane Co., incorporated 13 November 1927 in California.  Nine months later the name was changed to Prudden Aircraft Corporation, and in November 1928, Prudden left the company at the height of the depression.    On 9 April 1929 the name was changed to Solar Aircraft Company, and by 1941 99.5% of its stock was owned by Aeromotive Components Corporation.  The International Harvester Company acquired control of Solar Aircraft Company in 1960, and in 1963 the Solar Aircraft Company merged with the International Harvester Company and became the Solar Division.  In 1977 the Solar Division's name was changed briefly to Solar, an International Harvester Group, then to Solar Turbines International, which it is called today.

  After Prudden left the company, Edmund T. “Ned” Price took over operations, wherein they made one experimental all metal aircraft (Solar MV-1).  Although sales of this model were unsuccessful, Price got the company through the Depression by manufacturing frying pans, baking pans, and beer barrels, among other metal items.  Price found success for the company in making stainless steel exhaust systems for aircraft. The stainless steel models made by the company had their origin as an innovation in the unsuccessful experimental MV-1 aircraft.  Stainless steel was a new material on the market, and this gave the Solar craftsmen experience in learning to shape and weld the alloy.

  Throughout World War II Solar continued to make valuable contributions, producing exhaust manifolds for U.S. airplanes and pioneering the development of critical high-temperature components for America's first aircraft gas turbines and jet engines.  This marked the beginning of a decades-long journey to becoming the world leader in industrial gas turbines and turbomachinery packages.  After World War II, Solar Aircraft Company used its expertise in metallurgy and fabricating difficult materials to produce aircraft and aerospace hardware, such as jet engine afterburners and rocket components.

  Today, Solar Turbines Incorporated designs and manufactures industrial gas turbine engines, compressors, and mechanical drive packages worldwide. The company offers turbomachinery systems comprising centrifugal gas compressors in various models that handle inlet flows and pressure ratios; and a range of equipment and services to meet the power system requirements onshore and offshore, as well as builds gas turbine packages for the oil and gas industry.   In San Diego they have facilities in Claremont Mesa, and their main operations are in downtown San Diego near the San Diego Airport.