Volmer S. Jensen was born in Milwaukee in 1909. He began to design and build sailplanes in 1925 at age 16. using plans published in the Boy Mechanic Magazine. He built a second one the following year from additional plans from the same source, and in 1927 he built his first glider with aerodynamic controls, an enclosed cockpit and a wheeled landing gear. The latter was based on the MIT glider Eddie Allen had taken to Europe in the mid-20s to compete against the Germans.

Volmer had moved to Seattle in 1925 to serve an apprenticeship as a machinist, and in 1928 he built a cantilever wing glider for a wealthy sportsman named Thomas Stimson. Volmer called it his VJ-4 and would utilize that numbering system for the remainder of his long aircraft design and construction career.

Throughout the late 1920s and 1930s his designs consisted of a series of increasingly sophisticated gliders, including the VJ-10 he built in 1939 which was the first two-place, side-by-side sailplane in the United States. During this period, Volmer was employed by a succession of aircraft companies, including Boeing, Consolidated, and Northrop, so his glider design and building were done in his spare time.

1946: Acquired Jarvis Aircraft Co assets.