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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1757.PDF
921 FLIGHT, 14 December 1956 One of the best known Short "Folders": No. 119, with three-bay wings. THE SHORT SEAPLANES HISTORIC MILITARY AIRCRAFT No. 14 PART I By J. M. BRUCE, M.A. IT might well be said that the aviation industry of the worldwas born in Battersea in the year 1900. There, under a rail-way arch, the brothers Eustace and Oswald Short began to manufacture balloons on a commercial basis. Eustace Short hadtaken up the sport of ballooning in 1897, and it was not long before his younger brother Oswald, then only fifteen, began toaccompany him on his voyages. Their decision to make balloons of their own was inspired by reading Travels in the Air, a bookwritten by the pioneer aeronaut James Glaisher, and the first Short balloon was made in 1898.The early Short firm was sufficiently successful to be able to continue to exist at a time when ballooning was, first and fore-most, a sport: some of their products participated in the balloon races of that leisurely, halcyon age. In 1905, however, thebrothers Short received a contract from the Government of India for die supply of captive war balloons (presumably for artilleryobservation duties); and in the following year tiiey were appointed club engineers to the Aero Club. By that time, reports of theactivities of the Wright brothers in America had been studied with interest by the members of the Aero Club. The Shorts were noless interested, and Eustace was convinced, after seeing Wilbur Wright fly at Le Mans in 1908, that the heavier-than-air flyingmachine was superior to the balloon. The two brothers discussed how they might begin to makeaeroplanes, but concluded that they did not possess sufficient technical knowledge to undertake the production of aircraft whichwere relatively much more complicated than balloons. They approached their elder brother Horace in the hope of arousinghis interest in their project. Horace Short, then 35 years old, was an expert on steam turbines and was engaged in experimentalwork for the Hon. C. A. Parsons in Newcastle. His response to the proposition put to him by Oswald Short was characteristic: "Iwill come in with you, and I will give you three days," he said. "If by that time you have not made up your mind I will startwithout you." Horace Short gave up his post with Parsons, and the threebrothers began work on heavier-than-air machines forthwith. Their first product was a glider, a scaled-down powerless Wright JUST as the F-boats—studied in this series a year ago—were theoutstanding British flying-boat type of World War I, so were the Short seaplanes predominant in the floatplane category. The development,manufacture and use of these classic aircraft are reviewed in the present history. It can be claimed that, for the first time, the story of theShort seaplanes is being told in full; in the past, even the makers have been unable to fill gaps in the records of the numerous variants. Theauthor acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. Bruce Robertson, who provided much of the information relating to serial numbers, and toMr. H. H. Russell for some of the facts on which the history is based. biplane which was built for the Hon. C. S. Rolls. In the sameyear (1908) work was started on Short No. 1, a pusher biplane which owed something to contemporary Wright designs.Originally fitted with a car engine, it failed to fly; but there are indications that it later succeeded when fitted with a Bariquandand Marre engine. Short Brothers moved their works from Battersea to Shellbeach, Isle of Sheppey, in 1909, and Short No. 1was still there in November of that year. In 1909, Short Brothers received the first contract ever given forthe quantity production of aircraft. This was for the manufacture of six Wright biplanes to the order of Wilbur and Orville Wrightthemselves, and intended for use in England. The first was pur- chased by the Hon. C. S. Rolls, and the others by Alec Ogilvic,Frank McClean (later Sir Francis McClean), the Hon. Maurice Egerton (later Lord Egerton of Tatton), Cecil Grace, and theHon. C. S. Rolls. This last machine was later bought by Alec Ogilvie from the executors of the Hon. C. S. Rolls. On October 30 of that same year, Mr. J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon(now Lord Brabazon of Tara) flew Short No. 2 for a distance of 11 miles to win the Daily Mail prize of £1,000 for the first flightof one mile by an all-British aeroplane. This aircraft bore a resemblance to the contemporary Wrights and was powered by a50-60 h.p. Green engine driving twin pusher propellers. The next Short was generally similar to No. 2 but was smallerand much more workmanlike. It was exhibited at Olympia in the 1910 Aero Show; power was provided by a 35 h.p. Green engine,and the machine was priced at £650. Fully loaded it weighed 857 lb, and the wing loading was 3 lb/sq ft. Between them, the Shorts Nos. 1 and 2, the Olympia Showmachine and the Wright biplanes account for only nine of Short Brothers' works numbers—ten at most if the Wright glider beincluded—yet the next Short aircraft of which adequate records have survived was No. 27, properly the S.27. In this aircraftShort Brothers abandoned the Wright configuration in favour of a conventional box-kite form, and the S.27 most closely resembledthe contemporary Howard Wright biplane. It was an equal-span biplane with monoplane tail unit and forward elevator, poweredby an eight-cylinder E.N.V. engine. The S.27 was flown with distinction by Cecil Grace, notably at the Midland Aero Club'smeeting at Dunstall Park, Wolverhampton, June 27-July 2, 1910. The S.27 might be said to have provided the design basis forseveral of its successors. What their precise designations were is now impossible to establish, for the circumstances of the periodled to the application of a bewildering variety of numerical designa- Early history: Modified Short S.27 biplane with nacelle.
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