Armstrong Whitworth

Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd, widely known as Armstrong Whitworth among several similarly named variants, was a major British heavy engineering and manufacturing company that was at its peak in the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and aircraft. The company was founded by 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 J D Siddeley.

In 1847, the engineer William George Armstrong founded the 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 Mitchell to form Armstrong Mitchell & Company and at the time its works extended for over a mile (about 2 km) along the bank of the River Tyne. Armstrong Mitchell merged again with the engineering firm of Joseph Whitworth in 1897. The company expanded into the manufacture of cars and trucks in 1902, and created an "aerial department" in 1913, which became the Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft subsidiary in 1920. In 1927, it merged with Vickers Limited to form Vickers-Armstrongs.

The Armstrong Whitworth car was manufactured from 1904, when the company decided to diversify to compensate for a fall in demand for artillery after the end of the Boer War. It took over construction of the Wilson-Pilcher, designed by Walter Gordon Wilson, and produced cars under the Armstrong Whitworth name until 1919, when the company merged with Siddeley-Deasy and formed Armstrong Siddeley. The Wilson-Pilcher was an advanced car, originally with a 2.4-litre engine, that had been made in London from 1901 until 1904, when production moved to Newcastle. When Armstrong Whitworth took over production, two models were made: a 2.7-litre flat four and a 4.1-litre flat six, the cylinders on both being identical with bore and stroke of 3

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