Британдық көлік құралы өндірушісі AEC тарихы

British vehicle manufacturer

Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was a British vehicle manufacturer that built buses, motorcoaches and trucks from 1912 until 1979. The name Associated Equipment Company was hardly ever used; instead, it traded under the AEC and ACLO brands. During World War One, AEC was the most prolific British lorry manufacturer, after building London's buses before the war. In 1912, LGOC was taken over by the Underground Group of companies, which at that time owned most of the London Underground, and extensive tram operations. As part of the reorganisation following the takeover, a separate concern was set up for the bus manufacturing elements, and was named Associated Equipment Company, better known as AEC. AEC's first commercial vehicle was a lorry based on the X type bus chassis. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, AEC's ability to produce large numbers of vehicles using moving track assembly lines, based on American principles, became important in supplying the increasing need for army lorries. AEC commenced large scale production of their 3 ton Y type lorry in 1916, including some with Daimler built engines, badged and supplied as Daimler. Continued beyond the end of the war, over 10,000 Y type lorries were manufactured – making AEC Britain's largest domestic provider of lorries for the nation's military. During the war, AEC produced their 10 ton 4x4 Matador artillery tractor (an adaptation of their commercial 4x2 Matador lorry that exploited AEC's experience with the Hardy FWD venture). The Matador was used for towing guns such as the 5.5 inch medium gun and the 3.7 inch AA gun. The Matador chassis was used as the basis for the Deacon a self propelled 6 pounder anti tank gun, which was used briefly in North Africa. The Thornycroft name disappeared from all the vehicles except the specialist airport crash tenders, such as the Nubian, and the Antar off road tractor unit. Production of the AEC Dumptruk was transferred to Basingstoke, and the Thornycroft six speed constant mesh gearbox and later nine and ten speed range change versions were fitted to AEC, Albion and Leyland buses and lorries. The AEC engines were used in Finnish Vanaja lorries and buses in the 1960s.

Leyland Motors acquired ACV in 1962. AEC lorries were given the same "Ergomatic" cabs used across several Leyland marques (including Albion). In 1968, all AEC double decker buses ceased production with the completion of the last Routemasters, and its last buses, motorcoaches and lorries were built in 1979. The AEC name actually disappeared from commercial vehicles in 1977, but the Leyland Marathon was built at the Southall plant until British Leyland closed it in 1979. In 1979, the production of Leyland (AEC) vehicles was transferred to remaining Leyland Truck and Bus plants.

ACLO was the brand name used by AEC in Latin America and in Spain to sell all their products. ACLOs were principally found in Argentina, Brazil, and particularly in Uruguay, where there were two ACLO fleets (150 buses in total) built by Verheul in the Netherlands on the Regal Mark IV chassis. They were interesting buses, faster than Leyland Tiger in use by other fleets. It was said at the time (early '60s) that the main reason was inter urban gearing instead of purely urban gearing present in Leylands. An interesting feature was the preselector gear change, similar to those in Leyland buses, controlled by a small gated lever installed by the steering wheel, with a reversed gate, with first gear to the right and up, and fourth gear to the bottom and left. In Argentina, 25 Verheul buses also built on the Regal Mark IV chassis were sold in 1961. In Spain, ACLOs could be seen mainly as double deck buses in Barcelona, and as line coaches in ALSA fleet.

In Portugal, the AEC vehicles, mainly coaches and buses but also lorries, were assembled and bodied by UTIC, a large coachbuilding firm based in Lisbon and Oporto, and were marketed under the UTIC AEC badge. AEC based vehicles were market leaders in Portugal, for instance, by the time of creation of Rodoviária Nacional, in 1975, those accounted for 67.5% of the more than 2500 buses and coaches inherited fleet. Production remained strong throughout the late 1970s and would cease in the autumn of 1980. From 1971 to 1973 the Loughborough based dealer Moseley imported nine UTIC U2043 coaches which were marketed as the Moseley Continental Tagus. They were mechanically equivalent to a rear engined Reliance or a coach version of the Swift 691 which AEC had planned but never marketed. They were expensive to buy new and the square sided styling looked dated to British eyes in the age of the Elite and Dominant coaches, thus they were slow selling. These were probably the only right hand drive coaches built by UTIC. At the time Moseley also marketed Salvador Caetano Coaches under its own name.

In the late 1950s, Spanish government restrictions on imports reduced AEC sales in Spain to virtually nil. As a consequence, AEC approached a Spanish truck manufacturer, Barreiros Diesel, to jointly produce buses and coaches based on AEC designs. The venture started in 1961, used Barreiros AEC as brand name, disregarding ACLO, and seemed very promising; production of the AEC off road dump trucks being planned too. Nevertheless, the Leyland takeover in 1962 soon undermined the agreement, as Leyland was partnering with Barreiros's Spanish arch rival, Pegaso; and eventually Barreiros looked for another collaborator in the bus arena, signing in 1967 an agreement with Belgian company Van Hool.

2012 was the centenary of the founding of AEC Ltd, and to mark this, a number of events took place throughout the year. By far the biggest was hosted by The AEC Society, and was held over the weekend of 26 and 27 May 2012 at Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire. It was the biggest ever gathering of AECs vehicles, and over 225 attended, as well as more than 350 vehicles of other marques. It was the biggest rally ever held by The AEC Society and was closed by a flypast by the Battle of Britain memorial flight.