Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, was an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since December 8, 2025, the facility is known as Short Brothers - A Boeing Company.Short Brothers A Boeing Company Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes.Barnes 1966 p. 8 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.
Shorts was primarily government-owned until being bought by Bombardier in 1989 and, in 2007, was the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland.Shorts as a "Centre of Excellence" within Bombardier, 2007 In November 2020, Bombardier sold its Belfast operations to Spirit AeroSystems. Following a deal to split Spirit Aerosystems' assets, Boeing became the main owner of the Belfast site in December 2025; production facilities relating to Airbus aircraft are leased out to Airbus.
The company's products include aircraft components, engine nacelles and aircraft flight control systems for Bombardier Aerospace, Boeing, Rolls-Royce Deutschland, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.Manufacturing profiles
History
Early years
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.Barnes 1967, p. 3 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, 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.
In 1905, they won a contract for three balloons for the British Indian Army. The quality of their work impressed Colonel James Templer, superintendent of the Royal Balloon Factory, who introduced the brothers to Charles Rolls. Rolls commissioned them to build him a large balloon to compete in the 1906 Gordon Bennett Cup balloon race. More orders soon followed from other members of the Aero Club of Great Britain (later Royal Aero Club).Barnes 1967, pp. 1–6
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!"Barnes 1967, p. 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. The brothers had obtained the British rights to build copies of the Wright design.Barnes, pp. 6–8
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. Here the Dunne D.5, the first tailless aircraft, was also built under contract. In 1910 the Royal Aero Club and Short Brothers moved to a larger and less marshy ground at Eastchurch, about away. 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.Barnes 1967, pp. 8–12, 120 In 2013 a statue of the brothers was unveiled in memory of their contribution to early aviation, by local artist Barbara Street to stand on the site of the Aero Club clubhouse at Muswell manor.
First World War
By the outbreak of World War I Shorts were already building a variety of aircraft. Production really started to expand during the war, for example for 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 , piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds, it hit a Turkish supply ship in the Dardanelles.The supply ship had already been hit by a torpedo from the submarine HMS E14 4 days earlier, and had run aground. See Short Type 184 for further details 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.Barnes 1967, p. 113
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.Barnes and James 1989, p. 16
Expansion at Rochester
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.Hanson, Richard. Borstal: Short Brothers. Access date: 15 January 2007. In 1913, an 8.4 acre (3.4 hectare) plot of land by the river Medway about 20 miles (32 km) away at Borstal, near Rochester, Kent, was purchased from Charles Willis (a local councillor), and the planning and construction work started.Cassidy, Brian. Flying Empires: Short "C" class Empire flying boats. Queens Parade Press, 2004. Access date: 15 January 2007. 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.
Airships at Cardington 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.Barnes & James 1989, p. 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.
1920s and 1930s
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.Barnes and James 1989, p. 19. 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 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 used by Sir Alan Cobham, when he, his wife, and crew made a survey of Africa which covered about 23,000 miles. Shorts then started design work on 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 board by Imperial Airways (later BOAC), to operate the UK's Empire Airmail scheme.
A year later Shorts won a British government defence contract for the Sunderland military patrol flying boat. Sharing a similar design, but incorporating some aerodynamic and hydrodynamic advances, and a more rounded top of the fuselage that incorporated several gunner's positions. Dreaded by U-boats, it was claimed by the British propaganda people that the Germans called it "The Flying Porcupine" (Fliegendes Stachelschwein in German), although no evidence supports their contention. In 1933, Shorts opened a new factory at Rochester Airport, which was becoming increasingly important for the landplanes the company was producing. The Eastchurch premises was closed in 1934, and in the same year Shorts purchased the engine manufacturer Pobjoy, which had moved to Rochester Airport to be near Shorts and had collaborated on its latest designs.