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ADDers Meet
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With roots in Short Brothers, a transition to Elliott Automation, Marconi Avionics then GEC Avionics these days the company is better known as BAE Systems
Let's begin with some history with a series of lovely photographs from the Andrew Clarkes collection of Short Brothers Aircraft pictured being launched from their Aircraft Factory on the River Medway at Borstal near Rochester on 29th September 1930
1. Titled 'On the Slip' (Shorts Calcutta Amphibian)
2. Shorts Calcutta Amphibian on River Mooring
3. Shorts Calcutta Amphibian mid river & Tiger Moth
History of the Calcutta Flying Boat
4. Shorts F5 Flying Boat fited witn 2 x 375 HP Rolls Royce Eagle 8 Engines
Information on the Shorts F5 Flying Boat
5. Shorts Production Director Albert Bibby right maternal grandfather to Dick Amos see below, on the Shorts Slipway with a Calcutta Flyingboat 1935 (Dick Amos Archive)
6. Shorts Miai/Mercury Floatboat
The Miai/Mercury Flyingboat Experiment
A number of people have asked if there's an evidence of the old Shorts Aircraft Factory. Sadly the riverside site at Borstal has been developed to housing & all the related local metal forging businesses, along with sites & buildings at Gads Hill, New Road* & Rochester Airport have gone the same way
However the remains of the slipway (5) are still visible from the Esplanade
* It was often said that Russian Submarines travelled upstream to pass the New Road building in the hope of photographing plans on the walls of the drawing office
7. The Shorts Slipway at Borstal, Esplanade looking towards Rochester
8. The Slipway looking towards the Medway M2 Motorway & high speed rail bridges
9. Similar view to 8 but showing brickworks of outfall
10 & 11. Brickwork of outfall & the Slipway in close-up
12. Dereliction of the old Shorts Slipway (Photographs 7 - 12 from 18th November 2011)
Short Brothers were based at Borstal Rochester from 1914 - 1948, they's begun their business in 1908 selling Wright Flyers under licence from Battersea, London
The Short Brothers Horace, Eustace & Oswald moved to Eastchurch on the Isle-of-Sheppey building a works at Muswell Manor 1 : Muswell Manor 2 & the Shellbeach Leysdown Aerodrome in July 1909
Muswell Manor Holiday Park now occupies the Airfield
Download Eastchurch Airfield pdf
13. Aviation history - The plaque at Leysdown Airfield marking the 1st British Flight in a Wright Brothers Aircraft licence produced by Shorts flown by JTC Moore-Brabazon on 2nd May 1909 photographed on 3rd July 2007
Against that historic backdrop the Airborne Display Division (ADD) built it's reputation designing, testing & producing a range of Head Up & Head Down (HuD & HDD) Systems for the UK & overseas clients from their Rochester Airport site
Most notably HuD Systems for Vought Corporation MkII A7 Corsair & General Dynamics Corporation F16 Aircraft
HuDs also made for the Boeing C-17, Lockheed Martin F-22 & the Eurofighter Typhoon
14, 15 & 16. ARF A7 Corsair, F16 the Fighting Falcon, & cutaway, plans & elevations of the MkII A7 Corsair
Another world another lifetime, but good to meet up with some colleagues from the heady days of ADD (Airborne Display Division) Rochester at the Bull at Penenden Heath, Maidstone on 9th of August 2011
17. Project Engineers Charlie Oliver, Keith Barnett, Mechanical Design Draftsman Ed Cheesman & former Consultant Ted Smith
18. Dave Carder Principal Hardware Engineer with Components Engineer Jack Milner
19. Vought Corporations MkII A7 Corsair In US Navy livery
20. Principle Quality Assurance Engineer Bill Burke & Senior Quality Assurance Engineers Tony Crack & Nigel Gunyon
21. Plan & elevations of the General Dynamics F16 Fighting Falcon
22. Sue Smith Secretary (Ted’s wife) Maureen Milner Confidential Secretary (Jack’s wife) & Sheila (Bryan’s wife)
23. The General Dynamics F16 Fighting Falcon
24. Bryan Smith Deputy QA Manager & Martin Redfern Chief Hardware Engineer
25. F16 cockpit & HuD
26. Project Manager Dick Amos & Commercial Director David Reeves
27. F16 Drawing
With grateful thanks to Suzanne Clarke for the Shorts Aircraft Photographs, Dick Amos for sharing his family photograph, Valve for the Borstal Esplanade Slipway photographs
28. Equipment Seal (not to scale)
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