As an engineering company, the name of Vickers had been around since 1828, so its venture into aviation was just one of many avenues of income, growing into one of the big players, until it was swallowed up by BAC in 1960. Vickers produced over 70 different types of aircraft during a 49-year period, not including a host of sub-variants. Not all were successful, but each one contributed, however small, another nugget of experience, which was either ploughed into the next aircraft or stored away for the future. The highly successful Vimy bomber evolved from the unsuccessful E.F.B.7 and 8 twin-engine fighters; their designer, Rex Pierson, was fully aware that the effort put into these two aircraft could be used in the near future for a completely different project. It was this ability to look closely at what it had done before that was one of Vickers' strengths. An ability to 'think outside the box' was another strength. A good example of this was not only employing Barnes Wallis, but having such faith in his ideas, which must have seemed quite radical at the time, especially his perseverance and ultimate success with geodetic construction. Wallis had no shortage of critics, and many 'dyed in the wool' employees of Vickers, during the early days, left the company because of his ideas. However, history has shown us that he was right about geodetics, and like Hawker with its Hurricane and Supermarine with its Spitfire, only God knows what the RAF would have done without the Wellington at the beginning of the Second World War. This new book edition of Aeroplane's Vickers Company Profile 1911-1977 is testimony to what Vickers' aircraft, and the men who flew them, achieved and shines a light on the aircraft manufacturer that designed and built them.
