Originally Posted by
farsouth
This is not a criticism - I also have always referred to the type as a Shorts 330 or 360, but if you are writing an article about the aircraft, reading the entry on Wikipedia it appears that it should correctly be referred to as a Short 330 or Short 360
As always, Wikipedia needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
"Shorts" is/was the usual contraction for the manufacturer Short Brothers (of whom there were 3, hence the plural) or, for a time, Short Brothers and Harland. For example this 1947 ad:
Confusingly, up to the 1960s, its products were usually prefixed by the manufacturer name in the singular (Short Stirling, Short Sunderland, Short Skyvan, etc), with type designations typically starting S/SA/SB/SC.
That continued in the certification designations of the commuter aircraft in the 1970s, hence Short SD3-30 and SD3-60, but for marketing purposes those were considered a bit of a mouthful, hence the more snappy Shorts 330 and Shorts 360 (note the plural in the name). Pretty well all marketing materials used these terms, whereas anything to do with airworthiness used the Type Certificate designations
"Short 330" and "Short 360" are neither one thing nor the other and I've never seen those in any authoritative source.