On 14 February 1986, the prototype conducted its maiden flight in Brazil before being delivered to Shorts to be used as a pattern aircraft and modified to meet Royal Air Force (RAF) requirements and used for trials and demonstrations.

[1] During September 1984, this same aircraft was displayed at the Farnborough Airshow; by this point, it had been equipped with an uprated PT6A-25C2 engine and a ventral air brake, which reportedly enabled the Tucano to achieve the required stall speed of 60 kn.

[1] However, tests undertaken at MOD Boscombe Down later on that year indicated the need to re-engine the aircraft in order to satisfy the RAF's requirement for time to height; accordingly, the Garrett TPE331 was selected.

Those Tucanos delivered to the Kuwait Air Force were suitable furnished to be combat-capable; they were armed for the purposes of both weapons training and light attack duties; such aircraft are fitted with four hard points, each capable of mounting various rocket pods, cannons, bombs, and external fuel tanks.

[11] Typically, student pilots would fly around 130 hours during their training course on the Tucano before progressing to the jet-powered Hawk T2 aircraft, based at RAF Valley.

Air Chief Marshal Stephen Dalton was dismissive of this suggested use of the Tucano, stating that it would cost lives amongst those on the ground and damage Britain's credibility and influence within the coalition forces in Afghanistan, and criticising its lack of operational flexibility.

[15] The RAF's Tucanos have been typically maintained by private companies, defence firm VT Group operated one such support contract during the early 2010s.

[18] By 2010, the Tucano fleet was scheduled to be withdrawn from RAF service in 2015, at which point it was to have been replaced by the winner of the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) programme.

[16] However, the type's out of service date was put back by several years; the last of the Beechcraft T-6Cs, the Tucano's direct replacement, was delivered to RAF Valley on 3 December 2018.

[21][22] On 22 Feb 1990, the first export Tucano Mk 51 ZH203 (destined for Kenya) crashed near Rathlin Island due to tailplane flutter in high speed weapons carriage trials, killing Shorts Chief Test Pilot Allan Deacon who ejected but drowned.

[28] On 22 June 2015, movie soundtrack composer James Horner died when the Tucano he was piloting crashed in central California in a remote region of the Los Padres National Forest about 60 miles (97 km) north of Santa Barbara.