Fleetwings started in 1926 (under a different name) as a business based on a patented mechanical timing device, which proved particularly suited to controlling automated welding equipment.

In 1929, the company reorganized as Fleetwings, Inc., in Garden City, New York, to develop stainless-steel aircraft structures.

The company progressed to manufacturing components for other aircraft manufacturers, including ribs and control surfaces for the Ireland "Privateer" amphibian, and ribs, flaps and tail surfaces for Grover Loening Aircraft Company, and moved to a larger location in a hangar on lower Roosevelt Field, Long Island.

In 1934, it purchased the former Keystone Aircraft facility on the Delaware River in Bristol, Pennsylvania, and moved its operations there.

[2] The Kaiser-Fleetwings Co. still existed as late as 1960, when it manufactured the launch canister for the Echo 1 balloon satellite at its Bristol factory.