Shorts brothers history 1897-1989

Courtesy of wiki: The Short Brothers business started in 1897 when Eustace Short (1875 – 1932) bought a second-hand coal gas filled balloon, and, with his brother Oswald, started a company to develop and manufacture balloons.[4] In 1900 the two brothers visited the 1900 Paris Exposition ('World's Fair'), where they saw the balloons of Édouard Surcouf (of Société Astra), who had developed a method of constructing truly spherical balloons.

The third brother… In 1902, the brothers started offering balloons for sale. They manufactured the balloons at Hove, Sussex, in premises above the acoustic laboratory run by a third brother, Horace (2 July 1872 – 6 April 1917). In 1903, when Horace left to work on steam turbine development with Charles Parsons, Eustace and Oswald moved their workshop to rented accommodation in London, then again to railway arches in Battersea, conveniently situated next to Battersea gas-works

Airplanes! In 1908, on hearing reports from Aero Club members who had seen the Wright brothers' demonstrations of their aircraft at Le Mans in France, Oswald Short reportedly said to Eustace, "This is the finish of ballooning: we must begin building aeroplanes at once, and we can't do that without Horace!" Oswald succeeded in persuading Horace to leave his job with Parsons, and in November 1908 they registered their partnership under the name Short Brothers.

THE FIRST PLANE Two orders for aircraft were soon received, one from Charles Rolls, who ordered a glider, and the other from Francis McClean, a member of the Aero Club who later bought several more aircraft from Short Brothers, and also acted as an unpaid test-pilot. At the end of 1908 Horace started work on the two designs, and in early 1909 construction was started of McClean's aircraft, the Short No.1 biplane.

SHORTS no. 1 biplane

Another “first” In February 1909, Shorts started construction of a new workshop on unobstructed marshland at Leysdown, near Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey. This had been acquired by the Aero Club for use as a flying ground, together with Mussell Manor (now known as "Muswell Manor"), which became its clubhouse. Construction of an initial batch of six aircraft was started immediately. Short Brothers thus became the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world to undertake volume production of an aircraft design.

World war i Shorts continued to build a variety of aircraft, but started to expand during World War I, when they supplied the Short Admiralty Type 184 (or simply "Short S.184"). On 15 August 1915, during the Battle of Gallipoli, a Short S.184 was the first aircraft to attack a ship with a live torpedo. Flying from HMS Ben-my-Chree, piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds, it hit a Turkish supply ship in the Dardanelles.

Shorts 184

Between the wars The Short Empire was a medium-range four-engined monoplane flying boat, designed and developed by Short Brothers during the 1930s to meet the requirements of the growing commercial airline sector, with a particular emphasis upon its usefulness upon the then-core routes that served the United Kingdom. It was developed and manufactured in parallel with the Short Sunderland maritime patrol bomber, which went on to serve in the Second World War; a further derivative that was later developed was the piggy-back Short Mayo Composite (Shown on next slide).

SHORT “MAYO” COMPOSITE

Short “empire”

World war ii During the conflict, the type was heavily involved in Allied efforts to counter the threat posed by German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic.[3] On 17 July 1940, a RAAF Sunderland (of No. 10 Squadron) performed the type's first unassisted U-boat kill.

Short “sunderland”

The 50’s In the 1950s, Shorts was involved in much pioneering research, including designing and building the VTOL Short SC1, the Short SB5 and the Short SB.4 Sherpa.

The freight pup In the 1960s, Shorts found a niche for a new short-haul freighter aircraft, and responded with the Short SC.7 Skyvan. The Skyvan is most remembered for its box-like, slab-sided appearance and rectangular twin tail units, but the aircraft was well loved for its performance and loading. It served almost the same performance niche as the famous de Havilland Twin Otter, and the Skyvan proved more popular in the freighter market due to the large rear cargo door that allowed it to handle bulky loads with ease. Skyvans can still be found around the world today, notably in the Canadian Arctic.

Sc.7 skyvan

The big dawgs The heavy lift freighter Short SC.5 Belfast flew for the first time in 1964. Only 10 were built for the Royal Air Force. In the 1970s, Shorts entered the feederliner market with the Shorts 330, a stretched modification of the Skyvan, called the C-23 Sherpa in USAF service, and another stretch resulted in the more streamlined Shorts 360, in which a more conventional central fin superseded the older H-profiled twin fins.

Short sc.5

330

MILITARY SD-360 (C-23)

AIR CARGO CARRIERS

360 - 36 passenger

Final days In 1977, the company changed its name back to Short Brothers, and in 1984 it became a public limited company in preparation for privatisation. The government announced the sale of Shorts to Bombardier on 7 June 1989 for £30 million.

The end