Vickers-Armstrongs

Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of

It featured among Britain's most prominent armaments firms.[1]

History

Vickers merged with the

High Walker on the River Tyne.

1929 saw the merger of the acquired railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon (MCCW); Metro Cammell.

In 1935, before rearmament began, Vickers-Armstrongs was the third-largest manufacturing employer in Britain, behind Unilever and ICI.^[2]

In 1956 Dorothy Hatfield became the first female engineering apprentice at Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), Brooklands,^[3] followed in 1958 by Janet Gulland who was the first female graduate apprentice at the company.^[4]

Break-up

In 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of Bristol, English Electric and Hunting Aircraft to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). This was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol (holding 40%, 40% and 20% respectively). BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting. The Supermarine operation was closed in 1963 and the Vickers brand name for aircraft was dropped by BAC in 1965. Under the terms of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 BAC was nationalised to become part of British Aerospace (later BAE Systems).

The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act also led to the nationalisation of Vickers' shipbuilding division as part of

Vickers Container and Packaging Machinery Division, including the Vickers Stitcher and Vickers Hardness Machine business, was bought by Fords Industrial Products, part of Barry Wehmiller in 1986. In 1991 the Vickers Hardness Machinery business was bought by the then field engineers, and continues today as UK Calibrations Limited based in Kidderminster. The Vickers Stitcher was still being manufactured in India as recently as 2005.

The steelmaking division became part of

Vickers produced larger weapons such as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun used on tanks. In 1948 Vickers bought the Australian business of Charles Ruwolt Ltd for £750,000 following Ruwolt's death in 1946. During World War II Ruwolt's firm produced armaments for the Australian Government, including field artillery such as mortars and howitzer cannon.^[7]

Shipbuilding

After the 1927 merger, the company possessed a major yard on each coast of Britain; the Naval Construction Yard of Vickers at

Vickers-Armstrong also built the VA-3 hovercraft.

Military vehicles

The company was also known for its

Notable Vickers-Armstrongs military vehicles include;

• Carden Loyd tankette
• Cruiser Mk I
• Cruiser Mk II
• Vickers 6-ton
• Light Tank Mk VI
• Valentine
• Vickers MBT (and under licence in India as Vijayanta)

Aviation

Vickers formed its Aviation Department in 1911. The aircraft interests of Armstrong Whitworth were not acquired in the merger and later passed to the

Between 1911 and 1970, just over 16,000 aircraft were built under the Vickers name; together the 11,462 Wellington and 846 Warwick aircraft (which were structurally similar) make up over 75% of this total.^[10]

Military aircraft

Vickers became renowned as a manufacturer of large aircraft at its main factory at Brooklands in Surrey. In the interwar period, the company produced the Wellesley, designed by Rex Pierson using the geodetic airframe principle of structural engineer Barnes Wallis. This would later evolve into the famous Wellington bomber, a mainstay of RAF Bomber Command and RAF Coastal Command during World War II. The Cold War-era Valiant V bomber was another Vickers product.^[11]

Military aircraft with the Vickers brand:

Vickers also competed for contracts with designs such as:

• Victory Bomber
• Vickers Type 559 – 1950s high altitude supersonic interceptor
• Vickers Type 010 Swallow – 1950s supersonic interceptor
• Vickers Type 581 - 1950s swing-wing bomber project

Vickers Canada

• Canadian Vickers Vancouver
• Canadian Vickers Vanessa
• Canadian Vickers Varuna
• Canadian Vickers Vedette
• Canadian Vickers Velos
• Canadian Vickers Vigil
• Canadian Vickers Vista

Missiles and other weapons

• "Upkeep" and "Highball" bouncing bombs
• Tallboy bomb
• Grand Slam bomb
• UB.109T – Company designation was Vickers 825.
• glider bomb
  from the 1950s.
• Green lizard – Surface-to-air missile project from the 1950s.
• Orange William – Anti-tank missile project from the late 1950s.
• Red Dean – Air-to-air missile project.
• Red Hebe – Air-to-air missile project.
• Vickers Vigilant
• R.A.E. - Vickers Transonic Research Rocket

Civilian aircraft

Vickers was a pioneer in producing

• Vickers Vimy Commercial
• Vickers Vulcan (1920s)
• Vickers Type 170 Vanguard (1923)
• Vickers Viastra
• Vickers Vellox
• Vickers VC.1 Viking
• Vickers Viscount
  • Vickers Viscount variants
• Vickers Vanguard
• Vickers V-1000 – not completed
• Vickers VC10

Marine engines

Vickers-Armstrongs was one of the few British manufacturers of marine diesel engines, notably for Royal Navy S, T-class and Estonian Kalev-class submarines during World War II.

Civilian Target and Sporting Rifles

After the Great War Vickers needed to diversify when the military contracts ended. Between WWI and the Second World War they introduced ranges of target and sporting rifles and shotguns, the most successful of which were their small-bore .22 rimfire target rifles. These were serious competitors to the Birmingham Small Arms equivalent products, and Vickers .22 target rifles were at the top of the major competitions' results for more than a decade. Initially these rifles were named solely for Vickers, but, after the 1927 amalgamation with Armstrongs, they became Vickers Armstrongs' products. See reference Vickers and Vickers-Armstrongs Martini target rifles and Sporting guns

In fiction

• In The Adventures of Tintin comic The Broken Ear, the role of Vickers-Armstrongs in the Chaco War is parodied as "Viking Arms Co. Limited". ^{[citation needed]}

• A handgun described in a trial of Walter Mitty's alter ego is a .50 caliber Webley-Vickers revolver.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom
• Basil Zaharoff

References