Shorts: A brief history of a Belfast manufacturing giant

Stirling bombers being constructed in Shorts’ Belfast factory during World War IIGetty

Bombardier is the largest manufacturing firm in the North and an icon of its industrial manufacturing heritage.

Operating as Short Brothers until 1989 when the Canadian giant bought the firm, the company is synonymous with Belfast, but didn’t begin life in the city.

Shorts was founded in 1908 in London and played an important role in supplying aircraft to the British airforce during World War I, a period of significant growth for the ...