Eustace and Oswald Short began the manufacture of lighter than air balloons in 1897 at Hove in Sussex; in 1905 they won contracts from the British Indian Army, as well as from prominent members of the Aero Club of Great Britain. Shorts Brothers was formed in Battersea, London, in 1908, after seeing the Wright Brothers demonstrate their powered aircraft at Le Mans, France. The world's first company to make production aircraft, they became known for their extensive range of float and sea plane aircraft, later progressing to turboprop airliners and missiles.

Cardington became central to the development of airships in Britain after Short Brothers were contracted to build airships for the Admiralty - see also Cardington Airship Works. They purchased the land in 1915 and constructed a 213 m (700 ft) long airship hangar (the No. 1 Shed) - designed and built by A J Main and Co of Glasgow - to enable them to build two rigid airships, the R-31 and the R-32.

By 1917 the numbers working there were so significant that Shorts commissioned the construction of an extensive housing estate opposite their headquarters building (the 'Shorts Building'). Shortstown expanded quickly, with housing laid out in a Garden City style, the design of the ornate cottages heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement.

The airships site was nationalised in 1919, under the control of the Air Ministry as the Royal Airship Works. Airships were constructed for both military and civil customers during the 1920s. The No. 2 shed (Southern shed) was erected in 1928 - originally located at RNAS Pulham, Norfolk, it was dismantled in 1928 and re-erected at Cardington inpreparation for the R101 project, part of a government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. After the R101 crashed in France on 5 October 1930 during its maiden voyage, killing, inter alia, the Air Minister who had initiated the programme, the Works was rapidly wound down, most staff being transferred to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough (see also Farnborough Airfield).

The Royal Aircraft Works was finally disbanded in 1936 and simply became known as RAF Station Cardington, the Shorts Building now the Officers Mess and Administration Block. With the approach of the Second World War the Balloon Development Establishment was set up in 1938; this was later absorbed into the Ministry of Supply as the Research and Development Establishment, Cardington in 1945.

RAF Cardington was closed in 2000. No. 1 Hangar, a Grade II* Listed Building, was placed on English Heritage's At Risk Register in 2007. Construction company Bellway Homes Plc acquired the majority of the site for housing from the Ministry of Defence in 2010. Part of this large-scale development was the meticulous restoration of the Shorts Building, completed in December 2011. Bellway also constructed an extensive new air and army cadet centre, borrowing elements of its design from existing housing within Shortstown.