Photographs courtesy of Mr Richard Douse, whose late father Carl Douse had been Robert Short's best friend. According to Richard, his father and Robert Short had been approached by an agent from China to come and train pilots for the Chinese Government. His father did not go, due to the opposition of his wife. This is important new information. The airline job that Short ostensibly went there to take up might have been only a cover, and almost certainly Boeing would have been in on it, perhaps the War department too. Short was a reserve 2nd Lieutenant, graduate of March Field cadet class of 1928. And another new bit of information: Lieutenant Ikuta, who shot down and killed Short at Suzhou on 22 February 1932, paid a visit of apology to Mrs Elizabeth Short at her home in the 1960s or 70s, and expressed his lifelong regret and sadness at having ended the life of such a brave and worthy man as her son.
Carl Douse in 1931 seated in the type of plane he and Robert Short flew in Washington State on commercial and air mail jobs. They planned to start their own airline. Short was local airport manager at least for awhile. It was a political job for which he was poorly suited by temperament, after his return from flight instructing in Los Angles where he had taught many notable people to fly in the late 1920s.
Robert Short, American Aviator
Model Boeing 218 and Robert Short, other Links from Thayer Syme's website