Brooklands Museum, Weybridge
On the site of the Vickers works. Holds the Loch Ness Wellington, a VC10 and Concorde G-BBDG, among Vickers and BAC-built aircraft.
The types
Vickers aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vickers F.B.5 ‘Gunbus’replica | 1914 | ~220 | 1 |
| Vickers Vimyreproduction | 1917 | ~240 | 1 |
| Vickers WellingtonIA/X | 1936 | 11,461 | 4 |
| Vickers Valetta & Varsity | 1947 | ~420 | 6 |
| Vickers Viscount | 1948 | 445 | 6 |
| Vickers Valiant | 1951 | 107 | 5 |
| Vickers Vanguard & Merchantman | 1959 | 44 | 2 |
| Vickers VC10+ Super VC10 | 1962 | 54 | 6 |
The firm
Vickers in brief
The aviation side became Vickers (Aviation) Ltd in 1928 and soon bought Supermarine. Rex Pierson led design, and Barnes Wallis supplied the geodetic structure of the Wellesley and Wellington. In 1938 the business became Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft). Vickers bought the Brooklands site in 1946 for civil work. The Viscount, Vanguard and VC10 were built there, and the Valiant became the first V-bomber.
In 1960 the aircraft interests joined the British Aircraft Corporation, with Vickers holding 40%. The Vickers name was dropped from aircraft in 1965. BAC was nationalised into British Aerospace in 1977.
Where to go
Museums holding Vickers aircraft
| Museum | Vickers types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklands MuseumWeybridge, Surrey | 7 | £24–£27 | 32 | Concorde G-BBDG, the British production-test aircraft, bookended by a Wellington bomber dredged out of Loch Ness in 1985 and the only… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 4 | £5 | 35 | East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 3 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 3 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 2 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 2 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| Avro Heritage MuseumStockport, Greater Manchester | 1 | £9 | 14 | Vulcan XM603 — the only all-white Vulcan on display anywhere, in original anti-flash nuclear livery — plus walk-in Lancaster and Nimrod… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 1 | £10 | 29 | The sit-anywhere policy itself — one entry fee, no per-cockpit charges, a full BAC 1-11 flight-deck sim in a shed, and thousands… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 1 | £9 | 33 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage CentreSpilsby, Lincolnshire | 1 | £13.50 | 11 | Lancaster NX611 (taxiing now, returning to flight one day, they swear) and Mosquito NF.II HJ711 — the only running Mosquito in Europe.… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 1 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 1 | £8 | 35 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 1 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 1 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 1 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 1 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
Questions
Frequently asked
Where were Vickers aircraft built?
Mainly at Brooklands, Weybridge, in Surrey. Viscounts were also built at Hurn, Bournemouth. All 53 production VC10s were flown out of Brooklands.
Who flew the Vickers Vimy across the Atlantic?
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, in June 1919. It was the first non-stop transatlantic flight.
What happened to Vickers aviation?
It became part of the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960. The Vickers name was dropped from aircraft in 1965.