'WE MUST BEGIN BUILDING AEROPLANES'

In November 1908 the new partnership of Short Brothers was registered at Battersea in London with a capital of 600 Pounds, and within months the Wright Brothers had assigned the British rights to Short Brothers to build six Wright Flyers. The Wright's contract with the Short Brothers was the first aircraft production contract ever awarded and established Shorts as the first aircraft manufacturers in the world.


1. The Hon C.S. Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, in his Short-Wright Biplane on 21 December, 1909

2. Short Biplane No.1 with Frank Mc Clean on board, September 1909

3. Short Biplane No. 27, 1910

4. Frank Mc Clean in the Tandem-Twin S27 on 29 October, 1911

5. In November 1910 the Royal Aero Club offered the admiralty free instruction for Naval officers. Out of over 200 volunteers, four were chosen to be pioneers of the Royal Naval Air Service. The first to qualify, lieut. Charles Rumney Samson is pictured about to take off in the Monoplane M2 November 1911.

6.S.39, in its later form, with four fuel tanks, December, 1911.

7. Short Tractor Biplane S.36, flown by Frank Mc Clean for the first time on 10 January, 1912.

8. S.62, delivered to the Central Flying School, Upavon, on 19 July, 1913.

9. A scarcity of suitable wood, following the first World War, encouraged Oswald Short to set about proving his belief in the validity of duralumin as a suitable material for aircraft construction. The result,in 1920, was the revolutionary Silver Streak bi-plane-the world's first all-metal, stressed skin aircraft.

10. The Singapore was launched on 17 August, 1926 and flown by Chief Test Pilot, John Lankester Parker.

11. Although ordered by the Air Ministry as an experimental prototype, Singapore proved so successful it was selected by Sir Alan Cobham, pictured with his wife Lady Cobham and Oswald Short, in 1927 for his famous six-month survey flight around Africa, during which it covered 23,000 miles,made some 90 take-offs and landings and surveyed more than 50 possible flying boat bases.

12. Building bus bodies for the London General Omnibus Company was another way that the company generated income and maintained emplyment. Production ran into thousands and lasted well into the 1930s.

13. Winston Churchill MP in the cockpit of a Calcutta flying boat. Oswald Short explains design features from the bow mooring cockpit, and seated on the right is Short's Chief Test Pilot, John Lankester Parker.

14. The first Calcutta, G-EBVG, was launched on 13 February,1928. On 21 September,1928, G-EBVG flew to Belfast and back. It returned on the 24th to take the Lord Mayor of Belfast for a flight over the city from the Musgrave Channel. On board the return flight to Liverpool was the first consignment of Irish eggs ever to be sold in Liverpool on the same day as they were laid.

15. The first Surgeon, N199,moored at Rochester in September 1927.

16. Eustace Short and Shorts' Chief Test Pilot, John Lankester Parker ith the Mussel II at Rochester on 8 March, 1930. Two years later,on 8 April, after making a perfect landing on the Medway,Eustace was found to have died of a heart attack just after touching down.

To be continued..