SHORT BROTHERS AVIATION PIONEERS
Their Contribution to Aviation Heritage 1894 - 1947
Project Principal's are Liz Walker (great, great niece of the three Short Brothers) and Martin Hubbard
The SHORT BROTHERS, Horace, Eustace and Oswald were true aviation pioneers and made many highly significant contributions to UK and modern world-wide aviation and yet the importance of their pioneering work and their innovations in the design and manufacture of early aircraft and the impact of these innovations on modern aviation is not widely recognised.
The Brothers set up the worlds’ first aeroplane factory at Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent in 1909 and started production with a licence from the Wright Brothers to build six Wright ‘Flyers’ and their own Short No.2 aeroplane. These aircraft were all bought by The Aero Club members e.g. The Hon. Charles Rolls (co-founder of Rolls Royce); Frank McClean; Griffith Brewer et al.
The famous aviator and aeroplane manufacturer C.F. Fairey wrote of Horace Short….
J. Lankester Parker O.B.E, one-time Chief Test Pilot and later Company director, wrote of Oswald Short…..
“The contribution made by Oswald Short 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 in this connection.”
Oswald feared this lack of awareness of the important role Short Brothers played with their contributions to aviation.
The installation of stainless steel plaques and restoration of each grave has helped increase the recognition of the importance of these remarkable brothers, highlighting the enormous contribution they made to aviation.
The main outcome of our Project is to increase the recognition of Short Brothers and their pioneering and world first feats which played an essential role in shaping modern day aviation. This website provides an information hub by drawing together the myriad of Short Brothers’ achievements together with ‘stories’ from SHORTS BOYS – the men women and boys employed by Shorts into a coherent ‘SHORT’ STORY told on this website. The timelines, photos and films have been carefully added to engage aviation heritage researchers, from school age to old age, with the materials and knowledge needed to place the Brothers in their true position in aviation history, as early aviation pioneers!
