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Horace and Eustace Short

In 1897 brothers Eustace (1875 1932) and Oswald Short (1883 1970) began their collective aviation career as self learned pilots of the coal gas balloon. After a relatively short amateur ballooning career, in 1905, they provided three balloons by contract to the Indian army; shortly thereafter they found their way into the public sector of aviation, manufacturing balloons for other independent adventurers like themselves.Then, in 1908, brother Horace Short (1872 1917) joined Eustace and Oswald in the family business and the three officially adopted the company name of Short Brothers. Following these developments, the newly formed company began production in the town of Leysdon on the Isle of Sheppey where the Short Brothers became the first aircraft builders in the world.Although Great Britain’s Civil Air Transport Committee had recognized in 1917 (over ten years after the Shorts began their business exploits) the civilian need for flights to remote destinations, such as South Africa and India, it was not for another ten years that the necessity would be fulfilled. The airboat (flying boat) presented a whole new means of travel for adventurous Europeans. Equipped for water landings, the flying boat allowed access to new and highly romanticized destinations that were now in demand.Other mentions of the Short BrothersBetween 1909 10 the Short Brothers who were based at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in the UK, built six Wright flyers under contract. This marked the beginning of the British Aviation manufacturing industry. The aircraft were supplied to the Royal Aero Club. The Club established its first flying ground at Muswell Manor near Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in 1909. Early contacts with the Wright brothers in America by Charles Rolls and the redoubtable Short brothers, balloon makers to the Club, led to the latter acquiring a Wright license and laying down the first aircraft production line in the world, at Leysdown and later nearby at Eastchurch. Oswald and Eustace Short made their first balloon in 1898 and established their works under a Battersea railway arch, supplying all fitments for the sport. From 1908 Oswald and Eustace were joined by their elder brother [Horace] and set up one of the first aircraft manufacturing companies. was founded by two brothers, Eustace and Oswald Short in 1898, in England. Originally they manufactured spherical balloons then in 1907 the firm was appointed Official Aeronautical Engineers to the Royal Aero Club. In 1913, the company found further development necessary and devoted itself almost entirely to the manufacture of seaplanes. Since the War,
cards agenst humanity, the Short Bros. achieved great success in developing these all metal flying boats. The first hydrogen filled airship flew in September of that year, and this was followed by the famous Zeppelins in 1890. Between 1900 and 1939 the airship was a huge success, and during this time in 1917 the Short Brothers began to build a factory and shed for the manufacture of the government sponsored R.101 Airship, at Cardington in Bedfordshire. In 1928, a second shed was brought from Norfolk, for the privately built R.100 Airship.These two gigantic buildings still dominate the village today. Pulham St. Mary in Norfolk was home of one of the world’s greatest airship stations between 1915 1935. The R.33 Airship is portrayed on the village sign. In 1930 the R101, while on its maiden voyage, was buffeted by high winds and crashed over France, only six of its fifty four passengers and crew survived. As a result airship production was ceased. By 1908 they had been joined by their brother Horace, moved to London and began to develop heavier than air machines. When larger premises were needed, the company moved to Eastchurch and later Rochester. In 1937,
cards against humanity card ideas, a factory to build aircraft was set up with the shipbuilders Harland and Wolff in Belfast harbour. The company headquarters was moved to Belfast in 1948. ClaxtonAeroplanes and Airmen : Sea Planes for Warfare”Even in the region of the air, into which with characteristic British prudence we have moved with some tardiness, the Navy need not fear comparison with the Navy of any other country. The British sea plane, although still in an empirical stage, like everything else in this sphere of warlike operations, has reached a point of progress in advance of anything attained elsewhere.”Our hearts should go out to night to those brilliant officers,
where can you get cards against humanity, Commander Samson and his band of brilliant pioneers, to whose endeavours, to whose enterprise, to whose devotion it is due that in an incredibly short space of time our naval aeroplane service has been raised to that primacy from which it must never be cast down.”It is not only in naval hydroplanes that we must have superiority. The enduring safety of this country will not be maintained by force of arms unless over the whole sphere of aerial development we are able to make ourselves the first nation. That will be a task of long duration. Many difficulties have to be overcome. Other countries have started sooner. The native genius of France, the indomitable perseverance of Germany, have produced results which we at the present time cannot equal.”So said Mr. Winston Churchill at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet held in London in 1913, and I have quoted his speech because such a statement, made at such a time, clearly shows the attitude of the British Government toward this new arm of Imperial Defence.Britain is slow to start on any great venture where great change is effected. Our practice is rather to wait and see what other nations are doing; and there is something to be said for this method of procedure.In the art of aviation, and in the construction of air craft, our French, German, and American rivals were very efficient pacemakers in the aerial race for supremacy, and during the years 1909 12 we were in grave peril of being left hopelessly behind. But in 1913 we realized the vital importance to the State of capturing the first place in aviation, particularly that of aerial supremacy at sea, for the Navy is our first line of defence.So rapid has been our progress that we are quite the equal of our French and German rivals in the production of aeroplanes, and in sea planes we are far ahead of them, both in design and construction, and the war has proved that we are ahead in the art of flight.The Naval Air Service before the war had been establishing a chain of air stations round the coast. These stations are at Calshot, on Southampton Water, the Isle of Grain, off Sheerness, Leven, on the Firth of Forth, Cromarty,
cards against humnity, Yarmouth, Blythe, and Cleethorpes.But what is even more important is the fact that the Government is encouraging sea plane constructors to go ahead as fast as they can in the production of efficient machines. Messrs. Short Brothers, the Sopwith Aviation Company, and Messrs. Roe are building high class machines for sea work which can beat anything turned out abroad.Our newest naval water planes are fitted with British built wireless apparatus of great range of action, and Messrs. Short Brothers are at the present time constructing for the Admiralty, at their works in the Isle of Sheppey, a fleet of fighting water planes capable of engaging and destroying the biggest dirigible air ships.

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