Since Grace flew his machine at a large number of aviation events, the design became generally known as the Short S.27.

[4] The following day he succeeded in qualifying for his pilot's licence, the fifteenth awarded by the Royal Aero Club.

Here he made what was judged the most spectacular flight of the meeting, remaining aloft for nearly half an hour and reaching an altitude of over 500 ft (150 m).

engine in order to make an attempt to win the Baron de Forest Prize for the longest flight to be made in an all-British machine from the United Kingdom to a destination in mainland Europe before the end of 1910.

Later that day he took advantage of an improvement in weather conditions to attempt to fly back to Dover, but after take-off encountered severe fog, and misjudged his course.

In 1911, Lieutenant Longmore and Oswald Short installed streamlined air bags on the undercarriage struts and under the tail of Improved S.27 No.

A flying-off platform was constructed over the foredeck and forward 12-inch (305 mm) gun turret of the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Africa, and on 10 January 1912 Samson, piloting No.38, used the platform while Africa was anchored off Sheerness to make the United Kingdom's first successful aeroplane take-off from a ship.

A convincing display of the possibilities of naval aviation was made in the presence of King George V, including a demonstration of the use of aircraft for spotting submerged submarines and the dropping of a 300 lb (140 kg) dummy bomb by Gregory.

[11] On 9 May,[12] the second day of the review, Samson flew No.38 off Hibernia, now fitted with the ramp, while the ship was under way, the first time that this had been done.

Afterwards the ramp was again transferred, this time to the battleship HMS London, and Samson repeated the feat on 4 July.

[13] Another very public display of the aircraft was made by McClean on 10 August 1912, when "remembering an appointment in Town", he flew S.33, equipped with floats, from Eastchurch to Westminster, flying up the Thames.

[15] Two examples fitted with dual controls, S.43 and S.44, were supplied to the newly established Central Flying School at RAF Upavon in July 1912, where they were still in service in late 1914.

[13] Shorts airframe number S.39 was given to an experimental twin-engined aircraft based on the Type S.27, the Triple Twin.

In December 1911 the upper wings were extended and the fuel capacity was increased: the extensions were removed in February, and fitted to the Tandem Twin.

In early 1913 the S.39 was completely rebuilt as a single-engined pusher without a front elevator and a similar tail unit to the production Short S.38, with balanced rudders.

The aircraft suffered from stability problems due to insufficient aileron control and unpredictable variations caused by the rear propeller working in the wake of the front one.

[18] The resultant machine had an extra bay added to the wings and the overhanging extensions were enlarged, bringing the wingspan up to 70 ft 6 in (21.49 m).

The aircraft was also given an elongated nacelle with the front elevator mounted on an upswept outrigger on its nose and paired rudders were fitted.

(Reference:[20]) In the period before the First World War Short Brothers did not assign type designations to their aircraft, which instead had individual airframe numbers, prefixed by the letter 'S'.