Short Brothers Aviation Pioneers

SHORT BROTHERS

Born 2nd. July 1872 at Chilton Colliery, Durham and died at Parsonage Farm, Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey in 1917

The famous aviator C.F. Fairey wrote of Horace…

“I joined Messrs. Short Brothers. Here I had the privilege of working with the greatest engineer I have ever met, Horace Short, a man who can be truly described as a genius and who taught me more than I ever learned in college or elsewhere. He is a practical engineer and has made his name as an aeroplane builder and as a man in whose hands pilots were safe. His machines never failed them.”

An article in the Daily Mail newspaper describes Horace…

“A dominant brilliant fighting character who resented discipline, radiated sudden electric ideas, exploded at fools and dreamed tremendous visions.”

Of his death the Daily Mail reported…

“The human dynamo has run down.”

Born June 1875 at Chilton Colliery, Durham and died in 1932 after landing his Mussel 2 aeroplane on the River Medway

Griffiths Brewer wrote of Eustace…

“Eustace, then in his early twenties and his brother Oswald, still in his teens, composed the aeronautical firm of Short Brothers whose chief asset and guarantee for their future was a genius for excellence in workmanship and an industry and perseverance which would carry them through enormous difficulties.”

He went on to say…

“Eustace, an idealist, was bitten by the fascination of the operation of machines in the same way that he was bitten by ballooning as distinct from the manufacture of the balloons and although he took a share in the progress and organisation he left every leading role of organising and directing to the younger brother, Oswald and spent more of his time on the practical side of flying. Eustace was a fine balloonist.”

Born June 1883 Derbyshire and died in 1969 at Gillham’s Farm, Lynchmere, West Sussex

John Lankester Parker, Chief Test pilot for 27 years and Company director…

“The contribution made by Oswald to the technical side of aviation is, I think, far greater than is generally realised and in my view he has never received the rightful tribute for his imaginative and practical work.

Oswald, personally, sponsored the use of aluminium alloy for the primary structure of aircraft years before the material was accepted as ‘airworthy’.

He pioneered the stress-skinned, all-metal construction with the most fanatical enthusiasm.”

A note in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by Gordon Bruce, Company Secretary of Shorts and Harland Ltd…

“Oswald was an unassuming, courteous man whose physical courage was proven as an aeronaut, pilot and observer on test flights.

He was a lover of music and animal life; his labour relations were paternalistic with a Victorian sense of fair play.”