company . for the shipbuilders see short brothers of sunderland . short brothers plc type subsidiary industry aerospace founded battersea 1908 headquarters belfast northern ireland revenue 810 million 2006 operating income 69 million 2006 net income 48 million number of employees 5 330 parent bombardier aerospace subsidiaries bombardier skyjet international ltd. website www.belfast.aero.bombardier.com short brothers plc usually referred to as shorts or short is an aerospace company based in belfast northern ireland . shorts was founded in 1908 in london and was the first company in the world to make production aircraft . 1 it was particularly notable for its flying boat designs manufactured into the 1950s . in 1943 shorts was nationalised and later denationalised and in 1948 moved from its main base at rochester kent to belfast . in the 1960s shorts mainly produced turboprop airliners major components for aerospace primary manufacturers and missiles for the british armed forces . in 1989 shorts was bought by bombardier and is today the largest manufacturing concern in northern ireland . 2 the company s products include aircraft components engine nacelles and aircraft flight control systems for its parent company bombardier aerospace and for boeing rolls royce deutschland general electric and pratt & whitney . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 the early years 1.2 first world war 1.2.1 expansion at rochester 1.2.2 airships at cardington 1.3 the 1920s and 1930s 1.4 first moves to belfast 1.5 second world war 1.6 postwar 1.7 belfast city airport 1.8 bombardier purchase 1.9 shorts apprenticeship system 2 aircraft 2.1 1900 1909 2.2 1910 1919 2.3 1920 1929 2.4 1930 1939 2.5 1940 1949 2.6 1950 1959 2.7 1960 1989 2.8 airships 2.9 missiles 2.10 rotorcraft 2.11 uavs and drones 3 chief test pilots 4 armoured vehicles 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the early years edit left to right oswald 1883 1969 horace 1872 1917 and eustace short 1875 1932 at mussell manor 1909 . horace suffered from brachycephaly which is quite evident in this photo . mussell manor the royal aero club clubhouse 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 . 4 in 1900 the two brothers visited the 1900 paris exposition world s fair where they saw the balloons of douard surcouf of soci t 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 . 5 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 6 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 . 7 commander samson making the first take off from a moving ship may 1912 in february 1909 8 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 . at this time the royal aero club had offered the admiralty the use of the flying field and frank mcclean had agreed to act as an instructor so beginning a close association between short brothers and the naval air service whose first pilots were trained using short s. 27 pusher biplanes . in 1911 shorts built one of the world s first successful twin engine aircraft the triple twin . construction started on a long series of naval aircraft floatplanes starting with the short s. 26 . in 1913 gordon bell became shorts first professional test pilot he was succeeded by ronald kemp in 1914 . kemp could not handle the volume of flight testing and development alone and by 1916 other pilots were employed on a freelance basis . one of these was john lankester parker . in 1918 parker succeeded kemp as shorts chief test pilot a post he was to occupy for the next 27 years . 9 first world war edit short 184 floatplane 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 . 10 in terms of number built the s. 184 was shorts most successful pre second world war aircraft over 900 were produced many under licence by other manufacturers . a landplane version of the s. 184 was also sold to the royal flying corps as the short bomber . 11 during the first world war shorts were among the manufacturers of two flying boats the f. 3 and f. 5 designed by john porte at the seaplane experimental station felixstowe . when the war ended some 50 of these were being built at rochester . 12 expansion at rochester edit due to the company s success and the increasing number of seaplanes being produced larger premises with ready access to the sea were needed . at that time seaplanes were taken by road to queenborough then loaded onto lighters to be taken to the rnas seaplane station on isle of grain to be launched and tested . 13 in 1913 an 8.4 acre 3.4 hectare plot of land by the river medway about 20 miles 32 km away at borstal 13 near rochester kent was purchased from charles willis a local councillor and the planning and construction work started . 14 by early 1915 the first facility of what was to become known as the seaplane works was completed no. 1 erecting shop . as this and the no. 2 and no. 3 shops became available the workforce moved from the eastchurch factory . no. 3 shop was completed in 1917 . a long concrete slipway was constructed from the centre line of no. 3 erecting shop to enable aircraft of up to 20 tons weight to be launched even at low tide . 14 airships at cardington edit in 1916 short brothers was awarded a contract to build two large dirigible airships for the admiralty . as part of the contract a loan was provided to enable the company to purchase a site near cardington bedfordshire on which to build airship construction facilities . as a result the company concentrated on the construction of heavier than air aeroplanes in the isle of sheppey rochester area and balloons and dirigibles at cardington . a housing estate built by the company near cardington to house its employees still bears the name shortstown . 15 in 1919 the name of the company was changed to short brothers rochester and bedford ltd. but nationalisation the same year ended the short brothers involvement with the company which became the royal airship works . the 1920s and 1930s edit during the immediate post war years the economic climate was difficult for the aircraft industry in the united kingdom . shorts survived without reducing the company s workforce by diversifying into areas such as building lightweight bus and tram bodies . 16 during the 1920s and 1930s flying boats were favoured for long range civil aviation because their operation did not rely on the existence of suitable airfields which were not widespread at the time . shorts took to the flying boat market and in 1924 constructed a 350 ft 110 m testing tank for testing hull and float designs . shorts designed the floats used for the supermarine s. 4 and gloster iii seaplanes entered by the united kingdom for the 1925 schneider trophy race . alan cobham s de havilland dh .50 g ebfo was also fitted with shorts floats at rochester . on 30 june 1926 cobham then started a flight to australia from the medway . two de havilland giant moths were fitted with shorts floats at rochester and the first was flown in june 1928 ; both were delivered to western canada airlines ltd. in 1924 shorts produced the first of a series of three designs known as the singapore . in 1927 the singapore i was made famous by sir alan cobham when he his wife and crew made a survey of africa and covered about 23 000 miles . this in itself was a trip that both proved the worth of flying boats but also highlighted the difficulties . the short sunderland widely operated by the allied powers during world war ii shorts then started design work on one of its most famous designs the short calcutta based on the singapore layout but larger and more powerful which began service with imperial airways in august 1928 . by april 1929 two more had been added to the fleet and they operated passenger preferred coastal routes from genoa to alexandria by way of athens corfu naples and rome . several calcuttas were used on shorter routes and were instrumental in permitting long range airline services between outposts of the british empire . shorts 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