Vickers Aircraft
Vickers-Armstrong Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger
of the assets of Vickers
Limited and Sir
W G Armstrong Whitworth &
Company in 1927. The
majority of the company was nationalised in
the 1960s and 1970s, with
the remainder being divested
as Vickers plc in 1977.
Vickers merged with the Tyneside-based
engineering
company Armstrong Whitworth,
founded by W. G. Armstrong,
to become Vickers-Armstrongs,
Ltd. Armstrong Whitworth
and Vickers had developed
along similar lines,
expanding into various
military sectors and
produced a whole suite of
military products. Armstrong
Whitworth were notable for
their artillery manufacture
at Elswick and shipbuilding
at a yard at High Walker on
the River Tyne.
Vickers formed its Aviation
Department in 1911. The
aircraft interests of
Armstrong Whitworth were not
acquired in the merger and
later passed to the Hawker
Aircraft group. In 1928 the
Aviation Department became Vickers
(Aviation) Ltd and soon
after acquired Supermarine
Aviation Works, which became
the Supermarine Aviation
Works (Vickers) Ltd and
was responsible for
producing the
revolutionary Spitfire fighter.
In 1938, both companies were
re-organized as Vickers-Armstrongs
(Aircraft) Ltd, and a
new 'art deco' headquarters
designed by architect C.
Howard Crane was built at
its Brooklands factory in
Surrey although the former
Supermarine and Vickers
works continued to brand
their products under their
former names.
In 1960 the
aircraft interests were one
of the founding companies
merged to form BAC. The
hovercraft activities of
Vickers-Armstrongs were
merged with those of
the Westland
Aircraft company (including
those of Saunders-Roe) to
form the British Hovercraft
Corporation in 1966 with
Vickers holding 25% of the
new company. Westland bought
out Vickers interest along
with other partners in 1970.
Vickers formed a subsidiary,
the Airship Guarantee
Company, under the direction
of Cdr Dennis Burney solely
for the purpose of producing
the R100 airship for the
government.
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.
Source:
Wikipedia
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