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The Short Brothers business
started in 1897 when Eustace Short (June 1875 – 1932) bought
a second-hand coal gas filled balloon, and with his brother Oswald
Short started a company to develop and manufacture balloons.
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. In 1902 Eustace and
Oswald started offering balloons for sale. They manufactured
the balloons at Hove, Sussex, in premises above the acoustic
laboratory run by a third brother, Horace Short (2 July 1872–
6 April 1917). Horace had invented an acoustic amplifier, and
was working to perfect it with Thomas Edison's European agent,
George Edward Gouraud. 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. In 1905 they won a contract for three
balloons for the British Indian Army. The quality of their work
impressed Colonel Templer, superintendent of the Royal Balloon
Factory, who introduced the brothers to Charles Rolls, later
to co-found Rolls-Royce. Rolls commissioned them to build him
a large balloon to compete in the 1906 Gordon Bennett balloon
race. More orders soon followed from other members of the Aero
Club of Great Britain (later Royal Aero Club). 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. 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. In March 1909 it was exhibited, without its fabric
covering, at the first British Aero Show held at Olympia. Meanwhile,
the brothers had obtained the British rights to build copies
of the Wright design. Commander Samson making the first take-off
from a moving ship: May 1912 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. In 1910 the business, together
with the Royal Aero Club, moved to larger premises at Eastchurch,
about 2.5 miles (4 km) away. Here the Short-Dunne 5, designed
by John W. Dunne, was built; this was the first tailless aircraft
to fly. |
