Company profile : Bombardier Aerospace

Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast is one of the largest aerospace companies in the UK, and this year celebrates 100 years of aircraft innovation. In November 1908, Short Brothers was registered as an aircraft manufacturer in Battersea, London, by the three Short brothers, Horace, Eustace and Oswald. A few months later the brothers secured the UK manufacturing rights and orders to build six ‘Wright Flyers’ for the Wright brothers, leading the newly-formedcompany to be called ‘the first manufacturer of aircraft in the world’.

Over the last century, the company has pioneered many aviation firsts, and is now an integral part of Bombardier Aerospace, the world’s third largest civil aircraft manufacturer and the leader in the business and regional aircraft markets.

Since acquiring Short Brothers plc in 1989, Bombardier has invested over £1.2 billion to help ensure that its UK operation is at the leading edge of aerospace technology. Employing around 5,000 people, it is a centre of excellence for the design, manufacture and support of large aircraft structures, including fuselages, engine nacelles and flight control surfaces in metal and advanced composites. It plays a major role in all of Bombardier’s families of aircraft, as well as producing aircraft structures and nacelles for other international manufacturers, and has around 800 approved suppliers across the UK and Ireland.