Short Brothers

Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, was an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes; it was particularly notable for its flying boat designs manufactured into the 1950s. In 1943 Shorts was nationalised, and in 1948 it moved from Rochester, Kent, to Belfast. In the 1960s Shorts mainly produced turboprop airliners, major aerospace components, and missiles for the British Armed Forces, and was bought by Bombardier in 1989.