Information AboutVickers |
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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:
HISTORY Vickers was formed in which was set up as the Wolseley Tool And Motor Car Company . By the early twentieth century, Vickers was producing Submarine s (initially under license from the Holland Torpedo Boat Company , Aircraft , Battleship s and Gun s, 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. They took over the company, and the latest improvment of became known as the 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). 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 . FIREARMS Vickers was involved the the production of numerous firearms. There were other Vickers machine guns (aside from the regular vickers water-cooled model). John Pederson s design for a semi-automatic rifle was trialed by the British in the intra-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 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 Blimp s) 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 Airliner s, 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 ( )''
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: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.
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