Associated Equipment Company
.jpg)
Associated Equipment Company ( AEC for short ) is the name of a former British manufacturer of buses and other commercial vehicles .
history
,_2009_HCVS_London_to_Brighton_run.jpg)
In 1912 the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was founded in Walthamstow , East London , to manufacture buses for the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC). AEC's first trucks (trucks) were introduced in 1916. These were 3 to 4-tonne type Y trucks that were built for the War Department. After the First World War there were also civil versions. From 1926 to 1928 there was a joint venture with the British Daimler Motor Company . During this time trucks with the brand name ADC (Associated Daimler Company) were sold.
In 1948, AEC took over competitors Crossley and Maudslay . In the same year the company name was changed to Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV), but the brand names continued to be used. Crossley models were produced until 1956, Maudslay models until 1960. New AEC plants were also built in South Africa , Spain , Portugal , Belgium and South America . AEC also supplied diesel engines to Willème in France , Vanaja in Finland , OMT in Italy and Verheul in the Netherlands . Production of dump trucks began at the Maudslay plant . In 1961 the competitor Thornycroft was taken over.
In 1962, AEC was taken over by its largest British competitor, Leyland Motors . AEC's range of models was streamlined and the foreign holdings were gradually reduced. New truck models from AEC have been equipped with uniformly manufactured cabs from the Leyland Group. In 1980 the last model was finally delivered under the AEC brand.
Famous buses
In 1929 the double-decker bus chassis AEC Regent appeared , which was produced in various stages of development up to 1959, also in thousands for London Transport as types STL, RT and RLH. The successor to the Regent was the semi-integral Routemaster double-decker bus with a self-supporting body made of aluminum, which was developed from the end of the 1940s and was manufactured from 1959 to 1968 (prototypes from 1954).
literature
- Pat Kennett: AEC , World Trucks No. 10 , Patrick Stephens, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-85059-398-0 (English)
