Vickers
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Image:Vickers Armstrong.png Vickers, founded as the Vickers Company in 1828, was a British manufacturer, primarily of military equipment, traditionally based in Barrow-in-Furness. The name Vickers lasted through until the 20th century, albeit by a series of takeovers and mergers. Today Vickers is part of BAE Systems, but only after a complicated series of demergers and later consolidation:
- Aircraft
Vickers Aircraft operations became part of the British Aircraft Corporation of which Vickers-Armstrong became a parent, owning a 40% (later 50%) share. BAC was nationalised in 1977 to become part of British Aerospace (later BAE Systems). - Shipbuilding
Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL) became part of the nationalised British Shipbuilders under the terms of the same act that nationalised BAC. VSEL was again privatised and in 1995 was acquired by GEC-Marconi. GEC-Marconi merged with BAe in 1999 to form BAE Systems. - Defence
Vickers plc coped with the loss of the aircraft and shipbuilding businesses by concentrating on land warfare systems. Vickers plc remained independent until November 1999 when it was acquired by Rolls-Royce plc. Rolls-Royce subsumed the marine propulsion business and then sold the remaining defence businesses to Alvis plc to form Alvis Vickers. Alvis Vickers was acquired by BAE Systems in 2004 to form BAE Systems Land Systems.
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History
Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by steel manufacturer Edward Vickers and his father-in-law in 1867. It began life making steel castings, though gradually acquired more businesses, branching out into various sectors. It bought out The Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1897, also acquiring its subsidiary, the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns And Ammunitions Company [1]. This was followed by the purchase of the car building activities of the Wolseley Sheep-Shearing Machine Company which was set up as the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company. By the early twentieth century, Vickers was producing submarines (initially under license from the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, aircraft, battleships and guns, amongst other military equipment.
Vickers-Armstrong was born in 1927 when the company merged with Armstrong Whitworth, which had been formed as an engineering company on Tyneside by W. G. Armstrong. The firm had developed along similar lines to Vickers, expanding into various military sectors.
In 1960 the aircraft interests of Vickers, Vicker-Armstrong (Aircraft) Ltd, were merged those of Bristol, English Electric and Hunting Aircraft to form the British Aircraft Corporation. This was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol (holding 40%, 40% and 20% respectively). BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting.
In 1977 the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act established British Aerospace and British Shipbuilders. This involved the nationalisation of both BAC and Vickers Shipbuilding.
See Vickers plc for further history
Armaments
Vickers manufactured and sold the Maxim machine gun forming a partnership with its inventor. From this they developed the Vickers machine gun which was the standard machine gun of the British Army and Empire and Commonwealth for some 50 years.
Tanks
The company was also known for its tank designs, starting with the widely used Vickers 6-Ton. It also produced the influential, if never actually produced, Independent A1E1 tank. One of the company's designs was the Valentine, produced in the thousands in World War II.
Recently, a tank carrying the Vickers' name is the British Challenger 2.
Aviation
Vickers (Aviation) Ltd acquired Supermarine in 1935, renaming it Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd. In 1938, it was then incorporated into Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd.
Airships
Vickers Sons and Maxim began work on a rigid airship for the British Admiralty in mid 1909 in a dock at Walney Island, Cumbria, sadly it disintegrated upon its second trip out of a floating hangar on the evening of 23 September, 1911. Further designs and difficulties followed although non-rigid machines including Sea Scouts (popularly called blimps) proved generally less troublesome than the larger rigid examples. Some models featured floating cars slung beneath them. Much experience in mooring techniques and swivelling motors was gathered despite the pressures of wartime. The last airship built at the Walney Island dock was a small non-rigid reconnaissance machine for the Japanese government that first flew on 27 April, 1921. A subsidiary called the Airship Guarantee Company Limited was formed under Sir Dennis Burney from 29 November 1923 (lasting until 30 November 1935) specifically to participate in the building of a massive six-engined commercial airship, the R100 in competition withe ill-fated R101. Their buildings were at Howden in Yorkshire. The R100 flew initially on 16 December, 1929 and achieved some trans-Atlantic flights before scrapping in November 1931 by Elton, Levy and Company.
Military aircraft
Vickers produced one of the first aircraft designed to carry a machine gun, the FB5 (fighting biplane) Gun Bus. It also built the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean non-stop, a converted World War I RAF Vickers Vimy bomber. (See 1919 in aviation.)
In 1928 Vickers Aviation took over Supermarine, later to be creators of the Spitfire.
In the interwar years, Vickers produced the Wellesley and Wellington, using Barnes Wallis geodetic construction ideas.
Civilian aircraft
Vickers was a pioneer in producing airliners, early examples being converted from Vimy bombers, and went on to manufacture the piston-engined Vickers VC.1 Viking airliner and Varsity military crew trainer, the Viscount and Vanguard turboprop airliners, and the stylish though noisy VC-10 jet airliner, which remains in RAF service as an aerial refuelling tanker. The Valiant V bomber was another Vickers design. The company later shifted its focus to military vehicles and weapons.
There is currently a move by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade to get the National Audit Office to investigate how Government money was used to help AV sell military products to Indonesia.
Other equipment
- Marine diesel engines eg for S and T-class submarines during WW2
- Sulzer diesel engines built under licence for railway diesel-electric locomotives.
- Unique Flying wing aircraft depicted as an advanced Nazi airplane to transport the Ark of the Covenant in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The plane was transported from England to Tunisia for production of the film.
In fiction
The role of Vickers Armstrong in the Chaco War is parodied as Viking Arms Co. Limited in Tintin's comic-book The Broken Ear.
Notable Vickers products
Main battle tanks
Vickers arms
Vickers aircraft
Production in brackets ( )
- Vickers FB5 "Gunbus" (119 + 105)
- Vickers Type 163 (1)
- Vickers Type 432 (1)
- Vickers M.1/30 (1)
- Vickers G.4/31 (1)
- Vickers Valentia WW1 flying boat
- Vickers Type 264 Valentia inter-war airfreighter, bomber and troop transporter
- Vickers Valetta
- Vickers Valiant
- Vickers Vanox
- Vickers Varsity
- Vickers VC-10
- Vickers Venom
- Vickers Vernon (45)
- Vickers Victoria (95)
- Vickers Vildebeest
- Vickers Vimy (225 bombers + 49 civilian)
- Vickers Viking
- Vickers Vincent
- Vickers Virginia
- Vickers Warwick
- Vickers Wellesley
- Vickers Wellington
- Vickers Windsor (3)
- Vickers Viscount
- Vickers Vangaurd
- Vickers Valiant the first of the 3 V-Bombers
See also
- Armstrong Whitworth
- Basil Zaharoff
- Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval shipyard SECN (1909-1925/45) at El Ferrol owned by Vickers
- Vickerstown
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References
- Anon, Vickers, Sons and Maxim Limited: Their Works and Manufactures. (Reprinted from "Engineering") London (1898).
- The above gives a picture of the firm as it was at the end of the 19th century, including numerous plates of the factories and products.
- Scott, J.D. (1962). Vickers: A History. London: Weidenfield and Nicolson.