Vickers-Armstrongs

1928. Hydraulic coal hoist.

1928. Four cylinder oil engine for HMS Medway.

1928.

1928.

1928.

1931. Carden-Loyd tractor truck and trailer.

1931. Quadruple screw turbo liner 'Monarch of Bermuda'.

1931. Pumps for the Egyptian Government.

1933.Vickers-Carden-Loyd Tractor Truck and Trailer for long loads.

1938.

1939.

1943.

1947. Bottling machinery.

August 1951. Vickers Viscount.

1952. The "Viscount"

1954.

1955.

1955. "City of Durban"

Sept 1956.

January 1957.

February 1957.

February 1957.

April 1957.

May 1957.

November 1958.

1960. "Viscount"

1960. "Swift"

1960. "Valiant"

July 1960. Construction of the SS Oriana.

1961.

Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. of Vickers House, Westminster, London; of Elswick Works, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Vickers-Armstrongs was a British engineering conglomerate formed from the engineering and armaments interest of Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth.

General

1927 The company was formed by the merger of many of the assets of Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth; it was a public company with Vickers the major partner in the new company with two thirds of the shares; Armstrong Whitworth would receive one third of the shares.

The two companies had developed along similar lines, expanded into various military sectors and produced a whole suite of military products. Vickers' assets which would be sold to the new company included those at Sheffield, Barrow, Eskmeals, Erith, Dartford, Swanley and Eynsford. Armstrong's contribution was to be the assets at Elswick, Openshaw and the Naval and Walker shipyards . Some subsidiaries would be retained by the parent companies and operated independently.

1928 Description of 4000 BHP Vickers-MAN diesel engine made at Barrow for HMS Medway. 'These Vickers-Armstrong engines conform in general design to M.A.N. practice, but considerable modifications have been made in the design of the bedplate, scavenge pump and exhaust and scavenge air collectors. The latter,instead of being water-cooled castings secured to the column, and making a sliding joint with the cylinders, are made of lagged steel plate, welded and stiffened and rigidly secured to the cylinders.'

1928 Merger of companies in the steel industry announced, involving parts of Vickers, Vickers-Armstrongs and Cammell, Laird and Co to form the English Steel Corporation .

1931 'As one of the numerous schemes for the development and betterment of the country, the Egyptian Government, through the Mechanical and the Electrical Department of its Ministry of Public Works, placed, towards the end of 1930, with M. Ahmed Ahboud Pasha, a contract for the complete construction of 15 pumping stations for the purpose of improving the drainage of the large areas of salty lands in the Northern Nile Delta. The design of the pumping stations was mainly determined by the special nature of the pumps involved, which were all to deal with low heads of about 1-5 metres to 3 metres (4.92 to 11.81 ft.). These pumps are at present in course of manufacture by Messrs. Vickers-Armstrongs Limited, Barrow-in-Furness. ... The pumps are driven by Metropolitan-Vickers electric motors through machine-cut single-reduction double-helical gearing. ...'. See drawings.

1931 Description of a discharging appliance, made at the Elswick Works, known as the "Norfolk spade" after its inventor, Tom Lord Norfolk. It had for some years been successfully operated on a 30-ton coal hoist at Canada Dock, Liverpool, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board being the first port authority to adopt it, but one was now being applied to a hoist being erected at Leith Docks, for the Leith Harbour Commissioners. In essence it was a large powered 'spade' in the form of a steel blade on the end of an hydraulically-operated arm, which was dipped into a tilted tipping wagon discharging bulk material into a ship's hold, if the material - typically wet slack - was reluctant to leave the wagon.

1935 Vickers acquired the remainder of the share capital that it did not already own from Armstrong Whitworth Securities Company and other investment companies. Company made private.

1937 Aircraft constructors.

1939 Vickers (Aviation) Ltd was incorporated

WWII By the end of 1944 the company had built the King George V battleship and several aircraft carriers at Barrow and Walker. The company also supplied all of the primary armament and much of the fire control gear for all of the battleships and cruisers supplied to the Royal Navy throughout the war. Barrow was the largest maker of submarines supplemented by work done at Walker. The company also manufactured much anti-aircraft equipment. Many land and tracked vehicles were made by the company and the company's designs were also made by outside organisations. On the aviation side, the company developed the Wellington bomber, later used as a transport with the larger variant the Warwick. The Spitfire justly became famous and was produced in many variants. Also some novel, secret weapons developed under the direction of Mr Barnes Wallis. Also many other munitions.

1945 During the year the company made the transition from wartime work to peacetime:

• Shipbuilding and Marine activities: Barrow and Walker-on-Tyne re-equipped for passenger and cargo ships and took a number of orders.
• Engineering products: Barrow had made a variety of equipment including soap-making machinery, condensers and other; at Elswick and Scotswood the brass departments were being re-equipped; office furniture and steel equipment were made at Dartford; watch making was to begin the North East in conjunction with Smiths and Ingersoll.
• Aviation: the South Marston airfield would be acquired and use as the base for Supermarine activities.
• Weybridge: the production which had been dispersed from Weybridge had been brought back; the land was to be acquired but the airfield would not be used as such. The civilian Viking had been developed and would go into production for BEA and for the RAF.
• Shadow factories: aircraft production at 3 of the 4 shadow factories had been ended; Chester and Blackpool were being turned over to production of pre-fabricated houses; Castle Bromwich has being handed back to the government.
• Research: facilities had been established at Elswick and Barrow, and a separate aeronautical research department had been established.

1946 Acquired the Brooklands track where many factories had been built during WWII

1946 Acquired Keenok Co

1946 A factory was built in South Wales for Anglo Celtic Watch Co, which was jointly owned by Ingersoll Ltd, Smiths English Clocks and Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. These 3 partners were also involved in a factory in the Team Valley.

1948 Sold its shares in the clock business to its partners

1954 Private company.

1961 Parent of group of four subsidiaries engaged as aircraft manufacturers, engineers and ship builders. 34,022 group employees.

1961 Ordnance and engineering specialists and armament manufacturers. 19,300 employees.

Aircraft

1911 Vickers formed its Aviation Department.

SEE Vickers Aircraft for a list of Aircraft built.

1927 The Vickers aircraft building activity was retained by Vickers when the other armaments activities were merged into Vickers-Armstrongs.

1927 The aircraft interests of Armstrong Whitworth were not acquired in the merger of Vickers and Armstrongs, and later passed to the Hawker Aircraft group.

1928 The Aviation Department of Vickers 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.

1939 Vickers' aircraft construction activities were transferred to Vickers-Armstrongs at government request. All Vickers-Armstrongs aviation interests were reorganised to become Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, although Supermarine continued to design, build and trade under its own name.

1939 Vickers (Aviation) Ltd was incorporated

1939 See Aircraft Industry Suppliers

1957 The Viscount was in use with 14 airlines; BEA signed a contract for 20 Vanguards, a larger aircraft; the Valiant was the only 4-jet bomber in service with the RAF; deliveries of the Supermarine Swift continued to the RAF and the Scimitar would be made for the Royal Navy

1960 The aircraft interests were merged with those of Bristol, the English Electric Co and Hunting to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). This was owned by Vickers, the English Electric Co and Bristol (holding 40%, 40% and 20% respectively). BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting.

1963 The Supermarine operation was closed.

1965 The Vickers brand name for aircraft was dropped by BAC.

1966 Vickers (Aviation) Ltd was renamed British Hovercraft Corporation Ltd

1977 Under the terms of the 1977 Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act, BAC was nationalised to become part of British Aerospace (BAe) (later BAE Systems).

1999 The Vickers brand ceased to be used for aircraft engines when Rolls-Royce renamed its acquisitions Vintners plc.

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Engineering

See Vickers-Armstrongs (Engineers)

Shipbuilding

Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd were shipbuilders from 1928-1968.

See Vickers-Armstrongs: Shipbuilding.

Steel Making

1928 Merger of companies in the steel industry announced, involving parts of Vickers, Vickers-Armstrongs and Cammell, Laird and Co. This would involve all of the steel interests of the 3 contributing groups, except for interests in guns, ammunition and tanks. A new company would be created to take over these interests: the English Steel Corporation Ltd. The constituent parts from Vickers-Armstrongs were:

• River Don works, Sheffield
• Attercliffe works, Sheffield
• Holme Lane works, Sheffield
• Openshaw works, Manchester
• Drop forging plant at Elswick

1928 Description of the production of forged boiler drums at the River Don Works for International Combustion. The larger of the two drums featured was 44 ft. 5 in. long, with an outside diameter of 5 ft. 3 in. and wall thickness of 4 1/2 in.

1929 Detailed description of steam accumulator made for the River Don works by Ruths Steam Storage.

Tractors

• See Vickers-Armstrongs (Tractors)

Pressings

• At Elswick, see Vickers Pressings

Other

1947 Acquired G. J. Worssam and Son, maker of bottling equipment, which would complement the Robert Boby business in serving the brewing, distilling and bottling industries

1947 Acquired the manufacturing and selling rights in the UK and other countries of the high speed rotary newspaper printing machinery and other presses developed by Walter Scott and Inc., of USA; the presses will be made in Newcastle, and known as Scott-Vickers presses

1947 Acquired George Mann and Co, lithographic printing machinery makers

1977 After nationalisation of Vickers' aircraft interests, the profit potential of the remainder of the business was seen to be substantially reduced. The remainder of the business consisted of: heavy engineering (at Scotswood); printing machinery; bearings; bottling machinery; shipbuilding, Roneo Vickers office equipment.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• [1] Wikipedia
• British Shipbuilding Yards. 3 vols by Norman L. Middlemiss