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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1156.PDF
FLIGHT. e APRIL 20, 1939 Shorts To-day : The Sun derland, with four Bristol Pegasus XXII engines of 850 h.p. each, a span of 112ft. 9in. and a normal weight of 44,460 lb. Birth and Growth of a famous British Aircraft Firm : The History of Short Brothers Flight " photograph. c THIRTY SHORT YEARS Flight " photograph. 0. Short. 00K here, Eustace, this thing is going to knock balloon ing into a cocked hat, and we have got to do some thing about it." That was how the great firm of Short Brothers came to be founded. The year was 1908, the place was Battersea, and the persons concerned were Oswald and Eustace Short. They had, for several years, been makers of balloons, and Eustace had himself Mr- H done a great deal of ballooning, but up till then they had not entertained the idea of turning their attention to heavier-than-air flying machines. Oswald Short had been reading accounts in the papers of flights by the Wright brothers in America, and with that foresight which has characterised all his work ever since, he saw that the aeroplane, with its speed and its independence of winds and weather, had possibilities of development not shared by the balloon. Oswald and Eustace talked the matter over, and came to the conclusion that they had not sufficient technical knowledge to embark upon a venture so complicated as the design and construction of aeroplanes; but their elder brother, Horace, was an engineer, and if they could get him interested they felt it might be possible to make a start. But Horace was in Newcastle, where he was doing experimental work for the Hon. C. A. Parsons, and there was no telling how he would take such a suggestion. There was only one way to find out: Oswald took the first available train to Newcastle, where he put the proposi tion up to Horace. His reply was startling, but typical of the man. " I will come in with you," he said, " and I will give you three days. If by that time you have not made up Shorts in the beginning : Their first machine, a biplane, had a front eleva tor and wing-tip rudders. It never actually left the ground. The other view shows the machine, " Short No. 1," being built under railway arches at Battersea in 1908. your mind I will start without you." That he had an agreement with Parsons was a minor consideration. His tory does not relate how he got around the agreement, but very probably Parsons realised, knowing Horace Short as he did, that it would be futile to try to keep him against his will, and he most likely released him from the contract. Within a very short time the works at Battersea (they were actually railway arches) were beginning the manu facture of components for the first Short biplane. One of our pictures shows workers assembling this machine. It was a biplane with elevators in front and rudders at the rear, and bore a faint resemblance to the Wright biplanes, although it differed from them in a great many respects. The first machine was built for Mr. Frank (now Lt. Col. Sir Francis) McClean, who was one of the founders of the Royal Aero Club, and to whose generosity early British aviation owes more than it can ever repay. The first machine, Short No. 1, was originally fitted with a car engine, as no British aero engine was available,
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