User:TheLongTone/Short No.1

The Short No. 3 was an early British aircraft built by Short Brothers for Charles Rolls.

Design and development
The aircraft was very similar to that of Short Biplane No. 2, being a biplane with a forward elevator and rear-mounted tailplane, but it was considerably smaller and lighter.

Unlike the No. 2 Biplane, it was intended to take off without the assistance of a launching rail and catapult,

the landing skids were incorporated into a considerably more substantial structure, each forming the lower member of a trussed girder structure resembling a sleigh, the upturned front end serving to support the biplane front elevators, behind which the rudder was mounted. A single fixed fin was mounted behind the wings on a pair of booms. Lateral control was not effected by wing-warping, but by "balancing planes", each consisting of a pair of low aspect ratio surfaces mounted at the front and rear ends of a strut which was pivoted from the mid-point of struts connecting the wingtips. Powered by a 35 hp Green engine, driving single pusher propeller