Calavar Corporation

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The Calavar Corporation was an aerial platform manufacturer. Founded in Santa Fe Springs, California the company offered a series of articulating boom aerial platforms for firefighting. The company built its last firefighting platform in 1984 but would continue to build aerial platforms for the industrial and construction market under the Condor name. In 1991 the company was acquired by the Time Manufacturing Company in Waco, Texas.
Although the company primarily built aerial platforms, the company also built a few pieces of non-aerial fire apparatus in the 1950s and early 1960s.
==History==
Calavar was a truck body fabrication company and FWD truck distributor in Southern California. The company built some fire apparatus sold to local fire departments. In 1966 they began to manufacture aerial platforms for the utility and aerospace industry. In 1969, Calavar introduced a 125 foot articulating boom aerial platform under the Firebird name. 
The Firebird utilized articulating booms with telescoping sections which allowed for a more compact unit than would otherwise be possible. By 1972, Calavar was offering four models of Firebird in lengths of 90, 100, 125 and 150 feet. These were appropriately named by their height, Firebird 90 through Firebird 150. While these units offered some unique advantages, they were very expensive compared to other types and as it turned out there were few chassis available to capable of mounting the unit. Nearly all would be sold on an extended wheelbase Hendrickson chassis. 
The Firebird 125 proved to be the most popular size, followed by the Firebird 90 and 150. Only one Firebird 100 was built, along with a single custom ordered Firebird 75.
Less than 3 dozen had been sold by 1984 and the company shifted its focus to other markets.
==Sources==
:Barrett, Paul R. Elevating Platforms. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2006.
:McCall, Walter M.P. Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Fire Engine Manufacturers. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2007.
:McCall, Walter M.P. The Evolution of Aerial Fire Apparatus. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2009.
:Company promotional literature and advertising
Category:Apparatus Component Manufacturers