Short Brothers
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Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company now based in Belfast. Shorts was the first true aviation company in the world, and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920's & 30's and throughout the Second World War. After the war they turned primarily to the production of cargo aircraft. The company was bought by Bombardier in 1989 and as Short Brothers plc now operates as a subsidiary.
Today the company manufactures aircraft components and engine nacelles for its parent company Bombardier Aerospace, and for Boeing, Rolls-Royce Deutschland, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. [1]
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[edit] History
What would eventually become Shorts was formed in 1897 when Eustace and Oswald Short took their first flight in a coal gas filled balloon. Their father had served his apprenticeship with Robert Stevenson. In 1902 the two brothers started offering balloons for sale, winning a contract for three for the British Indian Army in 1905. In 1908 they were joined by a third brother, Horace, and incorporated in order to sell licensed copies of the Wright Flyer aircraft that they built at Battersea in southwest London. In July 1909 they created Shellbeach Aerodrome on unobstructed marshland near Leysdown-on-Sea on the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary, home of Lord Brabazon's Royal Aero Club, which had originally formed for ballooning. They sold six Flyers to this Club over the next two years.
In 1910 they moved along with the Aero Club to larger quarters at Eastchurch, 4km or so away, and built the Short-Dunne 5, designed by John W. Dunne, the first tailless aircraft to fly. In 1911 they built the world's first twin-engine aircraft, the S-39 or Triple Twin. Over the next few years Shorts built 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). The S.184 became the first aircraft to sink a ship, when one flying from HMS Ben-my-Chree, hit a Turkish cargo ship in the Dardanelles during the Battle of Gallipoli. The S.184 was also sold to the Royal Flying Corps as the Short Bomber.
Throughout the 1920s and 30s the only viable way to operate long-range civilian flight was by flying boat, as the necessary runway infrastructure was not widespread and would be too expensive to construct for the relatively small number of flights. Shorts took to the flying boat market, producing a series of three designs known under the Singapore name. A Singapore I was made famous in 1927 by Sir Alan Cobham, when he, his wife, and crew made a survey of Africa while flying some 23,000 miles. {This in itself was a trip that would both prove the worth of Flying Boats but also highlight the draw backs and ease of damage from uncontrollable waters, especially sea tides!}
Shorts then started design work on one of their most famous designs, the Short Calcutta, based on the Singapore layout but larger and more powerful. The Calcutta first flew in 1928 and began active service with Imperial Airways in August. Two more were added to the fleet by April 1929 and flew passenger-preferred coastal routes from Genoa to Alexandria by way of Athens, Corfu, Naples, and Rome. A number of Calcuttas were used on shorter routes, and were instrumental in permitting long-range airline services between outposts of the British Empire. They followed the production of four Calcuttas with the larger Kent, following with a series of still larger aircraft designs such as the Short Empire, the first of which was launched on 2 July 1936 The Empire was commissioned off the drawing board by Imperial Airways (later BOAC) to operate the UK's Empire Airmail scheme. A year later they won a British Government defence contract for a military flying boat, the Sunderland. Sharing the same basic design but a modified upper structure the Sunderland was one of the most effective long range seaplanes in use. Dreaded by U-Boats, it was nicknamed the flying hedgehog due to its extensive armament.
A Short Empire was used by BOAC for the first westbound transatlantic service from Foynes, Ireland to Newfoundland on 5 July 1937. [2]
[edit] First moves to Belfast
They soon outgrew their factory at Eastchurch, and in late 1933 they opened an additional much larger factory at Rochester, about 15km to the west. In 1934 they closed their Eastchurch premises and purchased the Pobjoy engine manufacturers, with whom they had worked on their latest designs. In 1936 the Air Ministry formed a new aircraft factory in Belfast, forming a merger owned 50% each by Harland and Wolff and Shorts to become Short & Harland Ltd. The first product of the new factory was 189 Handley-Page Hereford bombers.
Their work on seaplanes eventually culminated in the Short Sandringham & Seaforth types, both based on the Empire/Sunderland boats these flying boats had enough range to operate as a transatlantic airliner but largely served the post war empire (Commonwealth) market in competition with 4 engined land planes such as the modified Lancasters.
[edit] World War II
The Sunderland remains famous as an anti-submarine patrol bomber during World War II, where its long range and long flying time allowed it to close the air gap between Iceland and Greenland, helping end the Battle of the Atlantic. It also rescued sea and air crews from the waters surrounding its spheres of operation especially those of Coastal Command. A Squadron was ordered by the Australian Air Force but never made it to Australia, instead Australians flew for the UK coastal Command. Australia impressed Qantas-Imperial Empire boats and used these successfully especially on reconnaiscence missions in the Timor sea area.
It was their work on the Sunderland that also won them the contract for the Short Stirling, the RAF's first four-engine bomber. If based on their original submission, essentially a land-based Sunderland with various cleanups, there seems to be no reason to suspect that the Stirling would not have been an excellent heavy bomber. Instead the Air Ministry stipulated a number of bizarre requirements of the plane, allowing it to double as a troop transport for instance, that eventually doomed it as newer designs outperformed it.
During the Battle of Britain the Rochester factory was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe and several of the early-run Stirlings and other aircraft were destroyed. From this point on the Belfast factory became increasingly important as it was thought to be well beyond the range of German bombers. However, Belfast and the aircraft factory were subjected to German aircraft bombing during Easter week 1942. In 1943 the Government took over management of the Belfast factory, and merged Short Brothers with Short and Harland to form Short Brothers and Harland Ltd.
[edit] Post-war
By 1947 all of their other wartime factories were shut, and operations concentrated in Belfast. In 1948 the company offices followed and Shorts became a Belfast company in its entirety.
In the 1950s, they built the Short Sperrin a backup jet engine bomber design in case the V-bomber projects failed.
In the 1960s Shorts found a niche for a new short-haul freighter aircraft, and responded with the Short Skyvan. The Skyvan is most remembered for its box-like, slab-sided appearance and equally rectangular twin tail units, but the plane was well loved for its performance and loading. Serving almost the same performance niche as the famous de Havilland Twin Otter, the Skyvan proved much 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.
An airfield was established by Shorts beside the Belfast factory in 1937 as Sydenham Airport. This was Belfast's main civilian airport from 1938 to 1939. The airfield was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Nutts Corner, a former RAF base, later became Belfast's main airport (and was itself superseded by Aldergrove in the 1960s). The airfield continued to be used for military purposes until the 1970s, after which it was used by Shorts. In 1983, following interest from airlines and customers, the airfield was opened for commercial flights as Belfast Harbour Airport (now George Best Belfast City Airport). Following major capital investment Bombardier sold BCA for £35 million in 2003.
In the 1970s Shorts entered the feederliner market with their 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.
In 1988, loyalists working at the factory attempted to sell parts, information and knowledge of a new missile system to the Apartheid government of South Africa. This was linked to a large arms shipment in 1988 which was then divided between the Ulster Defence Association, the Ulster Volunteer Force, and Ulster Resistance. In April 1989, three Northern Irish men; Noel Lyttle, Samuel Quinn and James King were arrested in Paris. Also arrested were arms dealer Douglas Bernhardt and a South African diplomat, Daniel Storm. [3]
[edit] Bombardier purchase
In 1977 the company changed its name back to Short Brothers, and in 1984 became a public limited company when the British government sold off its remaining shares. The company was purchased by Bombardier in October 1989.
In 1993 Bombardier Shorts and Thomson-CSF formed a joint venture, Shorts Missile Systems, for the design and development of very short-range air defence missiles for the UK Ministry of Defence and armed forces worldwide using expertise dating back to the 1950s. In 2000 Thomson-CSF bought Bombardier's 50% share to become the sole owner. Shorts Missile Systems was renamed Thales Air Defence Limited in 2001.
[edit] Aircraft
Year of first flight in brackets.
- Short 166
- Short 184
- Short 320
- Shorts 330 (1974)
- Shorts 360 (1981)
- Short Belfast (1964)
- Short Bomber
- Shorts C-23 Sherpa - see Shorts 330
- Short Kent
- Short Knuckleduster
- Short R.24
- Short R.31
- Short Rangoon
- Short S.8 Calcutta
- Short S.23 Empire
- Short S.26M
- Short Sarafand
- Short SB5 (1952)
- Short Brothers SC.1 (1957)
- Short Seaford
- Short Seamew(1953)
- Short Sherpa (1953)
- Short Shetland (1944)
- Short Singapore (1925)
- Short Skyvan (1963)
- Short Sperrin (1951)
- Short Stirling (1939)
- Short Sunderland (1937)
- Short Tucano (1986)
