Altogether 22 Scion/Scion II aircraft were built and they provided useful service to operators working from small airstrips/water courses in many parts of the globe, including Europe, the Near and Middle East, Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Many were impressed into the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, providing pilot ferry services, anti-aircraft co-operation and radar calibration duties.
[3] Further work with standard wings was carried out; one flight from Rochester Airport, with experimental full-span flaps incorporating retractable spoilers instead of ailerons, was made on 22 July 1936; this idea proved unworkable, Lankester Parker having to draw on his considerable experience to coax the aircraft around on a single circuit before landing safely.
G-AEZF, built by Pobjoy and first flown in December 1937, was originally operated as a floatplane by Elders Colonial Airways in Sierra Leone, between Bathurst (Gambia) and Freetown, and was returned to Shorts in 1939 and converted into a landplane in 1941.
After operating for the company for another six years it was eventually sold on to Air Couriers Ltd. in 1947,[4] after which it changed hands between private owners several times before finally ending up at Southend airport.