The Vickers corporation, founded as the Vickers company in 1828, was a British manufacturer, primarily of military equipment. Events January 4 - The Vicomte de Martignac succeeds the Comte de Villèle as Prime Minister of France. ...

Evolution

Though the company was split in 1955 today almost all of these disparate groups are now parts of BAE Systems. BAE SYSTEMS is a multinational defence and commercial aerospace products manufacturer. ...

• Vickers aircraft became part of the British Aircraft Corporation which then became British Aerospace and finally BAE Systems.
• Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd became part of the nationalised British Shipbuilders but was the first to return to the private sector. GEC's Marconi Electronic Systems acquired VSEL in 1995 and this group joined British Aerospace in 1999 to form BAE Systems.
• The remaining parts of Vickers were acquired by Rolls-Royce in 1999, which retained the marine propulsion business. Vickers Defence was sold to Alvis, becoming Alvis Vickers. Alvis Vickers was acquired by BAE Systems in 2004.

The British Aircraft Corporation, or BAC, was a British aircraft manufacturer, formed from the forced merger of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, English Electric, Vickers-Armstrong and Hunting Aircraft Company in 1959. ... BAe evolution since 1955 until 1999 merger to form BAE Systems British Aerospace (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, now part of BAE SYSTEMS. The company was formed on April 29, 1977 by the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act. ... Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL), based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. ... The General Electric Company plc (GEC) is a British company that was renamed Marconi plc on November 30, 1999 after its defence unit Marconi Electronic Systems was divested and sold to British Aerospace. ... Marconi Electronic Systems was a division of The General Electric Company plc (GEC), formerly GEC-Marconi. ... In Norse mythology, Alvis (all-wise) was a dwarf. ...

Land armaments

Vickers produced the Vickers machine gun, well remembered by thousands of British machine gunners. The company was also known for its tank designs, starting with the widely used Vickers 6-Ton. Another famous design was the Valentine in World War II. In more recent years Vickers' main tank product was the Challenger II. The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled . ... The US M1A1 Abrams tank is a typical modern main battle tank. ... General characteristics Length: 4. ... The most heavily manufactured British tank in World War II, the Infantry Tank III Valentine was known mainly for its inexpensive cost and high reliability. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... There have been three tanks named Challenger in British military service. ...

Aviation

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 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. Company interest revived from 1923 onwards and led to the building of a massive six-engined commercial airship, the R100 at Howden in Yorkshire. This airship flew initially on 16 December 1929 at the hands of Major G.H.Scott and achieved some trans-Atlantic flights before its scrapping in November 1931 by Elton, Levy and Company. A subsidiary called the Airship Guarantee Company Limited existed from 29 November 1923 until 30 November 1935. 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Cumbria is a administrative county located in the northwest area of England. ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... A database query syntax error has occurred. ... April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Akron in flight, 2 November 1931 An airship is a buoyant (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

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.) An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force of the United Kingdom. ... The Vickers Vimy was a British heavy bomber aircraft of the World War I era. ... This is a list of aviation-related events from 1919: Events Avianca begins services. ...

It 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. An airliner of Air Jamaica, the Airbus A340 An airliner is a type of aircraft initially designed for the transport of paying passengers. ... The Vickers VC.1 Viking was a twin-engined short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber. ... The Viscount was a medium-range turboprop airliner introduced in 1953 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world. ... The name Vanguard had earlier been used on a civilian model of the Vickers Virginia bomber, other versions of the same aircraft being the Victoria and Valentia. ... The VC-10 airliner was designed and built by Vickers in the 1960s. ... Aerial refueling, also called in-flight refueling (IFR) or air-to-air refueling (AAR), is the practice of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another during flight. ... A tanker is usually a vehicle carrying large amounts of liquid fuel. ... The Vickers Valiant was a British four-jet bomber, once part of the RAFs V bombers force. ... The term V bomber was used for the Royal Air Force aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the UKs strategic nuclear strike force. ...

Corporate change

1955 saw the separation of the company, then named Vickers-Armstrongs, into three groups, including Vickers Aircraft and Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd. The aircraft design and manufacturing parts of Vickers were merged with the Bristol, English Electric and Hunting aircraft firms into the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960. 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL), based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. ... The Bristol Aeroplane Company (formerly British and Colonial Aeroplane Company) began building primitive Bristol Boxkites in a former tram shed and became famous for the production of the war-time Blenhein and Beaufighter, the Brabazon airliner prototypes, the Britannia and Freighter and the Belvedere and Sycamore helicopters. ... The English Electric Company was formed in 1918 and, during that year and 1919, acquired control of Dick, Kerr & Co of Preston, England, Willans & Robinson of Rugby , England, and the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company of Bradford. ... The British Aircraft Corporation, or BAC, was a British aircraft manufacturer, formed from the forced merger of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, English Electric, Vickers-Armstrong and Hunting Aircraft Company in 1959. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Vickers acquired the Swedish ship engineering company Kamewa in 1986. The 1990s saw Vickers Shipbuilding enter a period of diversification, notably with the £340m ($609m) acquisition of Ulstein, the Norwegian shipbuilding group in December 1998. Kamewa is a Swedish company which was acquired by the British Vickers group in 1986. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Events and trends Technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other technology Reduction in size and cost of mobile phones leads to a massive surge in their popularity Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K) Microsoft Windows operating system becomes virtually ubiquitous on IBM... Ulstein is a municipality in the county of Møre og Romsdal, Norway. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Acquisition

Vickers was acquired by Rolls-Royce plc in 1999 for £576m ($1.03Bn.) The marine propulsion portfolio of Vickers made it particularly suited to Rolls-Royce, transforming the group into the global leader in marine power systems. Rolls-Royce plc (also known as Rolls-Royce Aero Engines) is the second-largest aircraft engine maker in the world, behind General Electrics GE Aircraft Engines division. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

In 2002 Vickers Defence Systems (which excluded the marine business) was bought by Alvis plc, and became a subsidiary, Alvis Vickers Ltd. In March 2004 the board of Alvis plc approved a £309m takeover bid by a direct competitor in the field of military vehicles, General Dynamics of the U.S. However, on June 4, 2004 BAE Systems outbid the American company, offering £355m, following which the board withdrew its recommendation in favour of the General Dynamics bid. BAE already owned almost twenty-nine percent of Alvis Vickers, and its last minute bid was seen as an attempt to prevent a strong rival from gaining a significant foothold in its home market. Following regulatory and majority shareholder approval the BAE offer was declared unconditional on 17th August. 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In Norse mythology, Alvis (all-wise) was a dwarf. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) is a defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures. ...

In September 2004 BAE announced the creation of BAE Systems Land Systems, a new company bringing together BAE subsidiary RO Defence and Alvis Vickers. BAE Systems Land Systems is a division of BAE Systems specialising in ground warfare systems, e. ... Royal Ordnance was the state-run arms manufacturer in the United Kingdom which was privatised in 1987. ...

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. The Republic of Indonesia is located in the Malay Archipelago, the worlds largest archipelago, between Indochina and Australia, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. ...

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. The Chaco War (1932–1935) was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the arid Chaco Boreal region of South America. ... Tintin and Snowy (Tintin et Milou) are world travellers and inseparable friends in The Adventures of Tintin. ... The Broken Ear (LOreille Cassée) is a one of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. ...

See also

• Basil Zaharoff

This article needs to be wikified. ...

External links

• Vickers company website (http://www.alvisvickers.co.uk/default.html)