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Vickers Automotive Manufacturer United Kingdom

Vickers Limited was founded in 1828 major British engineering and defense company . In 1927 he merged with Sir WG Armstrong-Whitworth & Co., Ltd. to Vickers-Armstrongs, ltd. and was nationalized in the 1960s. Parts of the company formed from 1977 to 2003, the Vickers plc .Known also for there military vehicle construction.

History

Naylor Vickers & Co. (1828-1867)1828 founded Mueller Edward Vickers with his father George Naylor in Sheffield , the cast steel factory Naylor Vickers and Company . Naylor was then co-owner of the smelter Naylor & Sanderson , while Vickers' brother William, a rolling mill operation. Edward Vickers himself had become wealthy through business in the railway industry . The new work initially made a name for itself by the casting of church bells.In 1854, Vickers' sons Thomas and Albert joined the company. In 1863, the company moved to a new headquarters in Sheffield on the River Don in Brightside.

Vickers Ltd. (1867-1927) 1867, the company was in a corporation converted and received the new designation Vickers, Sons & Company Ltd .

From now on, the company opened up numerous new business fields. In 1868, the production of shafts was added, from 1872 ship propellers were cast and 1882 a forging press put into operation. In 1888 the first armored plates were made and in 1890 the first guns . In 1897, Vickers acquired the Barrow Shipbuilding Company at Barrow-in-Furness , the former Naval Construction Yard , and the weapons maker Maxim Nordenfelt's Guns And Ammunition Company , now called Vickers, Sons & Maxim . From this point on, Vickers was able to offer a complete range of shipbuilding products to offer armor and ship guns.In 1901, the Royal Navy's first submarine , the Holland 1 , was launched at Naval Construction Yard. In 1902 Vickers acquired half of the shares in the major shipyard John Brown & Company in Clydebank .

Another business was opened in 1905 with the acquisition of the car industry of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company , from which the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company emerged . In 1911, control was gained over Whitehead & Company , a torpedo manufacturer. In the same year the group took the name Vickers Limited and went into the aircraft construction. 1919 took over the assumption of the electrical enterprise British Westinghouse , renamed Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company , Metrovick for short. In contrast, the car maker Wolseley was sold in 1926 to the Nuffield organization .

Vickers-Armstrongs (1927-1977) In 1927, Vickers merged with Sir WG Armstrong-Whitworth & Co., Ltd. from Elswick in upon Tyne Newcastle for Vickers Armstrong Ltd . Armstrong-Whitworth and Vickers had a similar history and had become major armor makers. Armstrong-Whitworth included the gun factory Elswick Ordnance Company (also known as Elswick Ordnance Works ) and a yard in High Walker on the Tyne . The construction of surface ships Vickers-Armstrongs continued until 1963.In 1928, Vickers-Armstrongs acquired Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd. who had developed the Carden-Loyd tankette and thus entered tank production . 1929 was created by merging the railway activities of Vickers and Cammell, Laird & Company, the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon (MCCW) . According to the then Secretary of State of the Reich Chancellery Hermann Pünder donated Vickers-Armstrongs in the early 1930s money to the NSDAP .

In 1960, the aircraft industry of Vickers, Bristol , English Electric and Hunting Aircraft was united in the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Of the new company, Vickers and English Electric each held forty percent, Bristol the rest. BAC, in turn, had seventy percent stake in Hunting. In 1965 BAC gave up the brand name Vickers. Due to the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act of 1977, BAC was nationalized and became part of British Aerospace , later BAE Systems .

The same law resulted in the spin-off of the Vickers Shipbuilding subsidiary and the merger with the British Shipbuilders Corporation . In 1986, this area was privatized and renamed Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL), later became the property of Marconi Marine, a GEC subsidiary, and is now part of BAE Systems as BAE Systems Submarines .Steel production was transferred to British Steel . The remaining activities formed since 1977, the Vickers plc .

Vickers plc (1977-2003) In 1980, Vickers plc acquired the vehicle manufacturer Rolls-Royce and in 1990 the engine manufacturer Cosworth . In 1998, both companies were sold to Volkswagen .

With the purchase of the Royal Ordnance Factory in Leeds in 1986 Vickers expanded its military division. The Vickers products of the time included the Challenger 1 and Challenger 2 battle tanks . In 1999, Vickers acquired the South African defense company Reumech , whose subsidiary Land Systems OMC was renamed Vickers OMC . In 2004, Vickers OMC went to BAE Systems .Vickers owned the Brown Brothers group, which built controls and stabilizers for ships. 1996 acquired Vickers Kamewa waterjets , a Swedish manufacturer of water jet drives . Two years later, another manufacturer of marine propulsion systems joined the Norwegian engineering company Ulstein .

The engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce , the 1987 privatized sister company of the car maker, acquired the Vickers Group in 1999, but was only interested in the division of marine equipment. In 2002, Rolls-Royce sold the armaments division, now renamed Vickers Defense Systems , to Alvis , who named his new daughter Alvis Vickers . Vickers plc was renamed Vinters plc the following year .In 2004, BAE Systems acquired the Alvis Group and brought Alvis Vickers into its military division, BAE Land Systems . With that the name Vickers finally disappeared after 176 years.

Vickers produced the Maxim machine gun in collaboration with its developer. Later, they took over the company and developed the weapon to Vickers machine gun on. This became the standard weapon in the British Empire and Commonwealth over the next fifty years . The Vickers MG was offered in different calibers and sold worldwide. The air-cooled 7.7 mm MG Vickers K and the 40 mm machine gun Vickers S were later produced for installation in aircraft .Vickers produced numerous rifles, including the semi-automatic Pedersen rifle , also called Vickers rifle.Vickers developed a number of well-known types of bombs , including Upkeep , Highball , Tallboy and Grand Slam . Later, the UB.109T , Vickers Vigilant and Red Dean were created .

Airships

Vickers began in mid-1909 with the development of a rigid airship for the British Admiralty . The prototype was already lost on September 23, 1911, shortly after the maiden voyage. The simultaneously developed non-rigid airships proved less problematic. The last aircraft of this type was created in 1921 for the Japanese government. Between 1923 and 1935, Howden (Yorkshire) had the subsidiary Airship Guarantee Company Limited , which developed the six-engined civil airship R100 . The R100 drove for the first time on 16 December 1929 and led up to their scrapping 1931 by several transatlantic trips.

Aircraft

Vickers created the Vickers Ltd Aviation Department in 1911 and built one of the first machine gun-armed aircraft, the FB5 Gunbus biplane . During the First World War, the company built the flying boats Valentia and Viking and the heavy bomber Vimy . A converted Vimy succeeded in 1919 the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic. From this model was later developed the Virginia , one of the most important aircraft of the Royal Air Force in the interwar period.Before the Second World War, the Wellesley , which was further developed to the Bomber Wellington . From the time of the Cold War came the Valiant , one of the V-bombers .With the converted Vimy bombers Vickers was one of the first manufacturers of commercial aircraft. This activity was continued with the Vickers Viking . Later followed the turboprop aircraft Viscount and Vanguard . BAC developed the jet aircraft VC-10 .

The aircraft construction of Armstrong Whitworth was sold to Hawker Aircraft . 1928 originated Vickers (Aviation) Ltd , after the acquisition of the Super Navy Aviation Works in the Super Navy Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd was introduced. 1938 was the successor company Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd , which retained the old brand names. In 1960, the aircraft was sold to British Aircraft.Vickers had a subsidiary in Canada, which also worked in the aircraft industry, the Canadian Vickers Limited .

Military vehicles

Between the world wars a series of tank designs emerged. The British Army procured from it the medium Mark I and the Mark II . The Vickers 6-tone was the most successful design and was remodeled abroad under license. The Vickers A1E1 Independent was only built in one copy, but had great influence on the tank development of other states. The Vickers Mark 7 from the 1980s was also built only as a prototype, this combined the chassis of a Leopard 2 with a tower similar to the Challenger 2 .

During the Second World War Vickers built numerous heavy weapons and tanks, including the infantry tank Valentine .The military vehicle construction remained initially owned by Vickers plc, later became Alvis Vickers and is now part of BAE Systems Land and Armaments .

Major military vehicles: