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Vickers-Armstrong
Vickers-Armstrongs 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. It featured among Britain's most prominent armaments firms. History Vickers merged with the Tyneside-based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth, founded by William Armstrong, to become Vickers-Armstrongs. 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. 1929 saw the merger of the acquired railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon (MCCW); Metro Cammell. In 1935, before rearmament bega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supermarine
Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer. It is most famous for producing the Spitfire fighter plane during World War II. The company built a range of seaplanes and flying boats, winning the Schneider Trophy for seaplanes with three consecutive victories (in 1927, 1929 and 1931). After the war, the company produced a series of jet fighters. Overview Supermarine was founded in 1913 as Pemberton-Billing Ltd. The company was located on the River Itchen, Hampshire, River Itchen close to Woolston, Southampton, on ground purchased by the British aviator and inventor Noel Pemberton Billing to construct motor launches. Pemberton-Billing produced two prototype Multiplane_(aeronautics)#Quadruplanes, quadruplanes designed to shoot down Zeppelins—the Supermarine P.B.29 and the Supermarine Nighthawk. Both aircraft were fitted with the recoilless Davis gun. The Nighthawk had a separate Propulsion, powerplant to power a searchlight.The World's Worst Aircraft James Gilbert Pemberton-B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vickers Limited
Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entire large ships, cars, tanks and torpedoes followed. Airships and aircraft were added, and Vickers jet airliners were to remain in production until 1965. Financial problems following the death of the Vickers brothers were resolved in 1927 by separating Metro-Cammell, Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Company and Metropolitan-Vickers, then merging the remaining bulk of the original business with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrongs. The Vickers name resurfaced as Vickers plc between 1977 and 1999. History Foundry Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor (businessman), George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor & Sanderson, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Hatfield
Dorothy Helen Hatfield OBE FRAeS (née McRither) (January 1940 – 16 April 2024), aeronautical engineer, was in 1956 the first female engineering apprentice at Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), Brooklands. She became President of the Women's Engineering Society and was instrumental in setting up the Daphne Jackson Trust and the Lady Finniston Award for first year female engineering students. Hatfield was appointed an OBE for services to engineering in the 2014 Birthday Honours. Early life and education Dorothy McRither was born in January 1940 and brought up in Surrey. She left school at 16 and in 1956 successfully applied to be an engineering apprentice at Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, Brooklands, the first woman to do so. After six years she graduated with a first class honours degree in aeronautical engineering. McRither married a fellow apprentice and took his surname Hatfield. They had three children who Hatfield took a career break to raise. Career Hatfield then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armstrong Whitworth
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Tyne and Wear, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and aircraft. The company was founded by William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, William Armstrong in 1847, becoming Armstrong Mitchell and then Armstrong Whitworth through mergers. In 1927, it merged with Vickers Limited to form Vickers-Armstrongs, with its automobile and aircraft interests purchased by John Siddeley, 1st Baron Kenilworth, J D Siddeley. History In 1847, the engineer William George Armstrong founded the Elswick, Tyne and Wear, Elswick works at Newcastle, to produce hydraulic machinery, cranes and bridges, soon to be followed by artillery, notably the Armstrong breech-loading gun, with which the British Army was re-equipped after the Crimean War. In 1882, it merged with the shipbuilding firm of Charles Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Aircraft Corporation
The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric, English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with shareholdings of 20%, 40% and 40% respectively. BAC in turn acquired the share capital of their aviation interests and 70% of Hunting Aircraft several months later. History Formation BAC's origins can be traced to a statement issued by the British government that it expected the various companies involved in the aircraft, guided weapons and engine industries to consolidate and merge with one another. Furthermore, the government also promised incentives to motivate such restructuring; the maintenance of government research and development spending and the guarantee of aid in launching "promising new types of civil aircraft". One partic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vickers Plc
Vickers plc was the remainder of Vickers-Armstrongs after the nationalisation of three of its four operating groups: aviation (as a 50% share since 1960 of British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1977), shipbuilding ( Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group in 1977) and steel. It was purchased by Rolls-Royce plc in 1999, and the Vickers company name became defunct in 2003 as Rolls renamed the company Vinters Engineering. History The company was created in 1977 from the rump of Vickers-Armstrongs following the nationalisation of its aviation, shipbuilding and steel businesses. The name was first used by the Vickers family for Vickers Limited – at first a Sheffield steel foundry and later a manufacturing conglomerate – from 1867 to 1927. During the 1980s the company acquired businesses in the automotive engineering sector (principally Rolls-Royce Motors), the defence sector (principally Royal Ordnance Factory Leeds) and the marine engineering sector (principally Kamewa and Uls ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sociedad Española De Construcción Naval
From 1909 until the Spanish Civil War, naval construction in Spain was monopolized by the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval – (SECN) also Spanish Society for Naval Construction (SECN). During this time the majority of its shares were owned by the United Kingdom firm ( John Brown and Vickers-Armstrong), and therefore almost all ships built by the company were developed after Royal Navy designs. History Ten years after the Spanish–American War of 1898, in which Spain lost Cuba and the Philippines, the Antonio Maura Government, in an attempt to restore the Spanish Navy and Spanish shipbuilding industry, hired the Spanish Society for Naval Construction, whose major investors were a British-Spanish-Association taking contracts In the following proportions: 40% Vickers Sons and Maxim, 30% the Marquis of Comillas of the Spanish Transatlantic Company, 30% the Biscay Furnace Company, all the previously state owned shipbuilding yards, workshops, foundries and dry docks at Fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janet Gulland
Janet Mary Gulland FRAeS MA CEng (18 July 1934–23 September 2017) was a British aeronautical engineer and the first female graduate engineering apprentice at Vickers-Armstrongs. Education Gulland attended Berkhamsted Girls School and then went to Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford in 1953. There she intended to study mathematics but changed to engineering science, being the only woman in her year. In 1956, while at Oxford University, she won a Fulbright Scholarship as a research assistant in engineering at Brown University, Rhode Island, USA. In 1958 she became the first woman to join Vickers-Armstrongs as a graduate engineering apprentice and completed her apprenticeship in 1960. Career Gulland then took up a position in Vickers-Armstrongs’ Aerodynamics Department, where she was involved in wind tunnel studies. During the 1960s she was also an Operational Researcher monitoring the performance of the TSR-2, a strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, which also became Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918, producing military aircraft such as the Wellington and civil airliners like the Viscount and VC-10. The circuit hosted its last race in August 1939 and today part of it forms the Brooklands Museum, a major aviation and motoring museum, as well as a venue for vintage car, motorcycle and other transport-related events. History Brooklands motor circuit The Brooklands motor circuit was the brainchild of Hugh Fortescue Locke King, and was the first purpose-built banked motor race circuit in the world. Following the Motor Car Act 1903, Britain was subject to a blanket speed limit on public roads: at a time when nearly 50% of the world's new cars were produced in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Edwards (aviation)
Sir George Robert Freeman Edwards (9 July 1908 – 2 March 2003), was a British aircraft designer and industrialist.Gardner, Robert. ''From Bouncing Bombs to Concorde: The Authorised Biography of Aviation Pioneer Sir George Edwards OM,'' Sutton Publishing. 2006. Early life George Edwards was born on 9 July 1908 at Highams Park, on the north side of London, England. He attended Walthamstow Technical Institute Engineering and Trade School, after which he took an engineering course at the University of London and in 1926 acquired a Batchelor of Science (BSc) degree. The Walthamstow Technical Institute in 1970 became part of North East London Polytechnic (which later became part of the University of East London) Career Vickers Beginning as a design draughtsman in 1935, he was promoted in 1940 to Experimental Department Manager and in 1945 he became the Chief Designer of the Vickers-Armstrongs team that produced the Viking airliner, Valetta military transport, Varsity tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rex Pierson
Reginald Kirshaw "Rex" Pierson CBE (9 February 1891 – 10 January 1948) was an English aircraft designer and chief designer at Vickers Limited later Vickers-Armstrongs Aircraft Ltd. He was responsible for the Vickers Vimy, a heavy bomber designed during World War I and the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic non-stop. He was the chief designer of the Vickers Wellington bomber of World War II. Early life Pierson was born on 9 February 1891 at Little Fransham, Norfolk, the son of the rector the Reverend Kirshaw T. Pierson and his wife Helen Mary. He was educated at the Felsted School in Essex. Career Vickers Although his father wanted him to work in a bank, young Rex started an apprenticeship in 1908 with Vickers at Erith. As soon as the company started an aircraft section in 1911 he joined that part of the company and learned to fly. He gained Royal Aero Club Aviator's certificate number 660 on 14 October 1913 at Brooklands. By 1917 he was the chief aircraft designer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Aeroplane Company
The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable aircraft produced by the company include the 'Boxkite', the Bristol Fighter, the Bulldog, the Blenheim, the Beaufighter, and the Britannia, and much of the preliminary work which led to Concorde was carried out by the company. In 1956 its major operations were split into Bristol Aircraft and Bristol Aero Engines. In 1959, Bristol Aircraft merged with several major British aircraft companies to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Bristol Aero Engines merged with Armstrong Siddeley to form Bristol Siddeley. BAC went on to become a founding component of the nationalised British Aerospace, now BAE Systems. Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1966, who continued to develop and market Bristol-designed engines. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
