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Vickers

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Vickers was a British engineering conglomerate founded as the Vickers Company in 1828. Independent until 1999, the then Vickers plc was acquired by Rolls-Royce plc. Rolls-Royce sold the defence arm to Alvis plc which became Alvis Vickers. Vickers plc and its subsidiaries (i.e. those retained by Rolls-Royce) were renamed Vinters in March 2003. Rolls-Royce plc "[Principal subsidiary undertakings]" Retrieved 12 June, 2006

Contents

History

Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the steel manufacturer Edward Vickers and his father-in-law in 1828. The company went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons & Company. 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 [link] to become Vickers, Sons & Maxim.

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, aircraft, battleships and guns, amongst other military equipment.

In 1919, Vickers renamed the British Westinghouse electrical company that they had taken over as the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company. At the same time they came into Metropolitans railway interests.

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.

1929 Vickers merged their acquired railway business with Cammell Lairds to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon (MCCW).

Aircraft division nationalisation

In 1960 the aircraft interests of Vickers, Vickers-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. Under the terms of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act BAC was nationalised in 1977 to become part of British Aerospace (later BAE Systems).

Shipbuilding division nationalisation

The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act also led to the nationalisation of Vickers' shipbuilding divsion as part of British Shipbuilders. This division was privatised as Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd. (VSEL) 1968.

Subsequent history

In 1980 Vickers plc acquired Rolls-Royce Motors. This was not Vickers' first involvement with Rolls-Royce. In 1966 Rolls-Royce Limited (the original aero-engine and motor car company) acquired Bristol Aeroplane for its Bristol Siddeley engine business, but declared it had no interest in the BAC shareholding, which was owned by Vickers (40%), English Electric (40%) and Bristol (20%). Despite this Rolls-Royce still hadn't disposed of the BAC share by 1971 when the company was declared bankrupt. The 20% share was eventually acquired from receivership by Vickers and GEC (then parent of EE). Rolls-Royce plc (the post bankruptcy nationalised aero-engine manufacturer) was privatised in 1987.

Rolls-Royce Motors sale

In 1998 Vickers decided to sell Rolls-Royce Motors. The leading contender seemed to be BMW, who already supplied engines and other components for Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars. However their final offer of £340m was outbid by Volkswagen, who offered £430m.

However Rolls-Royce plc, the aero-engine maker, decided it would license certain essential trademarks (the Rolls-Royce name and logo) not to VW, but to BMW, with whom it had recently had joint business ventures. VW had bought rights to the "Spirit of Ecstasy" mascot and the shape of the radiator grille, but it lacked rights to the Rolls-Royce name in order to build the cars. Likewise, BMW lacked rights to the grille and mascot. BMW bought an option on the trademarks, licensing the name and "RR" logo for £40m, a deal that many commentators thought was a bargain for possibly the most valuable property in the deal. VW claimed that it had only really wanted Bentley anyway.

Acquisitions

Rolls-Royce acquisition

Vickers plc remained independent until November 1999 when it was acquired by Rolls-Royce plc. Rolls-Royce subsumed the marine propulsion business and sold the business of Vickers Defence Systems to Alvis plc to form Alvis Vickers. Alvis Vickers was acquired by BAE Systems in 2004 to form BAE Systems Land Systems. The various indidual companies retained by RR had their names changed with Vickers being replaced by Vintners so "Vickers Properties Limited" became "Vintners Properties Limited" and so forth.

Businesses

Armaments

Vickers manufactured and sold the Maxim machine gun forming a partnership with its inventor. They took over the company, and the latest improvement became known as the Vickers machine gun, which was the last major design Maxim himself worked on. It became the standard machine gun of the British Empire and Commonwealth, serving for some 50 years in the British Army. It also re-done in many-literally dozens of different cartridges and sold all over the world. It was also scaled up to larger calibers and saw use in other areas (the Royal Navy was another user).

Vehicles

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.

Firearms

Vickers was involved in the production of numerous firearms. There were other Vickers machine guns (aside from the regular Vickers water-cooled model). John Pedersons design for a semi-automatic rifle was trialled by the British in the inter-war period (between WW1 and 2). The British version of the rifle was made by Vickers, and as result this version of the Pedersen rifle is usually called the Vickers Rifle.

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 Cavendish Dock, 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 with the 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

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 ( )

See also


Lists of Aircraft | Aircraft manufacturers | Aircraft engines | Aircraft engine manufacturers

| Airlines | Air forces | Aircraft weapons | Missiles | Timeline of aviation

References

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.

    • Clients

    External links

     

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