Short S.36

Short S.36
Role	Sports aircraft, trainer
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Short Brothers
Designer	Horace Short
First flight	10 January 1912
Number built	1
Variants	Short S.41; Short S.45

The Short S.36 was a British two-seat

RNAS and RFC

.

Design and development

The origination of a

E.N.V. Type F, but after Grace's death at the end of the year the project was shelved, the aircraft being completed as a Type S.27.^[1] However, when Frank McClean was later shown the design by Horace Short, he asked for one to be built for him, to be powered by a 70 hp (52 kW) Gnome Gamma

engine.

As first built, the aircraft was an unequal-span two-seater

elevator mounted in front of it on top of the fuselage. The centre section of the lower wing was left uncovered, as was the fuselage aft of the cockpit: the cockpit section of the fuselage was covered with plywood, with aluminium panels at the front enclosing the fuel tanks and extending forwards to form the cowling for the front-mounted 70 hp (52 kW) Gnome Lambda engine. The undercarriage consisted of a pair of wheels below the wing leading edge, supplemented by skids extending forward to protect the propeller in case of a nose-over, and a single sprung tailskid mounted under the rear of the fuselage. The fuselage was subsequently rigged lower down, and the aft section of the fuselage covered with fabric.^[2]

Service history

The aircraft was first flown by McClean on 10 January 1912,

Mortimer Singer Prize

for naval officers.

The

Admiralty was sufficiently impressed by the aircraft to order two similar aircraft to be built, these becoming the 100 hp (75 kW) Gnome Double Omega-powered Short S.41 and the 70 hp (52 kW) Gnome Lambda-powered Short S.45

.