The Short Brothers

Video from the channel John Jones about Short Brothers, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 4:08. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Short piece about Eustace, Oswald and Horace Short, pioneers of British aviation, and their move from balloons to aeroplanes on the Isle of Sheppey.

In 1897 Eustace bought a gas balloon and he and Oswald became keen on ballooning. In 1905 they opened a balloon workshop under the railway arches in Battersea, and in 1906 the Aero Club appointed them its official balloon manufacturers. After a visit by the Wrights to Sheppey, they obtained a licence to build six Wright aeroplanes.

In February 1909 they set up the world's first aircraft factory at Shell Beach. On 30 October 1909 the Short No. 2, flown by John Moore-Brabazon, won the Daily Mail prize for the first circular mile flown by a British pilot in a British aeroplane with a British engine. The factory moved to Eastchurch in 1910 and to Rochester in 1913. Horace died on 6 April 1917, aged 44.