Short Brothers

Company History: Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is 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 airplanes. It was particularly notable for its flying boat designs manufactured into the 1950s.

In 1943 Shorts was nationalised and later denationalised, and in 1948 moved from its main base at Rochester, Kent to Belfast. In the 1960s, Shorts mainly produced turboprop airliners, major components for aerospace primary manufacturers, and missiles for the British Armed Forces.

In 1989 Shorts was bought by Bombardier, and is today the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland. Prior to that merger, the authorised capital share by the owner was: HM Government, 69.5% (majority share); Rolls-Royce Ltd, 15.25%; Harland & Wolff Ltd, 15.25%.

The company's products include aircraft components, engine nacelles and aircraft flight control systems for its parent company Bombardier Aerospace, and for Boeing, Rolls-Royce Deutschland, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.

Successor/Parent History: Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. The division is headquartered in Berlin, Germany and has many regional offices, production and development facilities worldwide.
The core of the Transportation division was formed with the purchase of Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in 1975. In 2001 Bombardier Transportation acquired Adtranz from DaimlerChrysler, and became by many measurements the Western world's largest rail-equipment manufacturer. After the Adtranz acquisition in 2001, Bombardier Transportation moved its core manufacturing strategy for Europe with a few legacy plants in North America for the smaller North American market.

Bombardier supplies rail vehicles, systems and services to major transit and airport authorities across the world. Their installed fleet includes high-speed trains, commuter trains, locomotives, light-rail vehicles, subway vehicles, monorails, signaling systems, and fully automated transit systems.

Bombardier entered the U.S. rail transportation market in 1976 and won its first major U.S. contract for 825 subway cars in New York City in 1982. Today, Bombardier's rail business employs U.S. workers in locations across 12 states. This includes two manufacturing sites outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that build rail products for both domestic and export markets, and one in Plattsburgh, New York, that builds rail vehicles for U.S. customers.

Bombardier also operates a network of maintenance centers supporting commuter rail fleets in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Orlando, Miami, and San Diego. They provide operations and maintenance services for a light rail fleet in southern New Jersey as well. They manage operations and maintenance services for driverless transit systems in 14 U.S. cities, and have a vehicle and component refurbishment center in New York. Our U.S.-based parts distribution center for rail is in Plattsburgh, New York.

In January 2021, Alstom completed the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation.

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Brief History: The United Kingdom, made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is an island nation in northwestern Europe. England – birthplace of Shakespeare and The Beatles – is home to the capital, London, a globally influential centre of finance and culture. England is also site of Neolithic Stonehenge, Bath’s Roman spa and centuries-old universities at Oxford and Cambridge.