Short S . 27 The Short S . 27 and its derivative , the Short Improved S . 27 ( sometimes called the Short - Sommer biplane ) , were a series of early British aircraft built by Short Brothers . They were used by the Royal Navy and its first air arm , the Royal Naval Air Service ( RNAS ) for training the Royal Navy ’ s first pilots as well as for early naval aviation experiments . An Improved S . 27 was used by C . R . Samson to make the first successful take - off from a moving ship on 9 May 1912 . Design and development . S . 27 . In May 1910 Shorts started construction of four examples of an aircraft designd by Horace Short based on the successful Farman III biplane . Four examples were built , being given the airframe numbers S . 26 , S . 27 , S . 28 and S . 30 . S . 26 was built for Francis McClean and had a Green engine , the same engine being used for S . 28 , built for J . T . C . Moore - Brabazon . S . 27 was built for Cecil Grace and had a E . N . V . type F engine . S . 29 was built as a reserve airframe . Since Grace flew his machine at a large number of aviation events , the design became generally known as the Short S . 27 . The aircraft was an equal span pusher biplane of Farman configuration , with a monoplane tailplane and an elevator mounted on booms forward of the wings , the elevator being extended outboard of the supporting booms . Single - acting ailerons were fitted to both upper and lower wings . The Green engined aircraft had a single rudder mounted underneath the tailplane , while Grace ' s E . N . V . engined example had an additional rudder mounted above it . The undercarriage was simpler than Farman ' s design , and consisted of a pair of wheels mounted on an axle attached to the skids : supplementary tailskids were attached to the ends of the tail booms . Improved S . 27 . The S . 27 served as the basis of various Shorts aircraft which followed . These differed from the S . 27 in having strut - braced extensions to their upper wings , increasing the upper wingspan by , a strengthened wing structure , and a reduced span front elevator without the sections outboard of the booms . They were powered by a 50 or 70 hp ( 37 or 52 kW ) Gnome rotary engine . One ( S . 35 ) was built with a nacelle for the pilot and passenger , seated in tandem : a similar nacelle was later fitted to S . 34 . Some were built with dual controls for instructional purposes . Many of the aircraft built were later extensively rebuilt , in effect becoming different types . Operational history . The date of the first flight by an aircraft of the type is not on record , but the issue of " Flight " dated 4 June 1910 carried a photograph of the aircraft and an article which records that several successful flights had been made by Cecil Grace , referring to the aircraft as No . 27 . Both S . 26 and S . 27 were flying by 19 June 1910 . S . 26 was flown by G . C . Colmore , a complete novice who , after twenty minutes of taxying trials , completed two and a half circuits of the airfield before having to land because of trouble with the engine . The following day he succeeded in qualifying for his pilot ' s license , the fifteenth awarded by the Royal Aero Club . On 20 June Grace set a new British altitude record in S . 27 , reaching a height of , and later that month flew it at the Midland Aero Club meeting held at Dunstall Park , Wolverhampton between 27 June and 2 July 1910 . 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 . Later , S . 29 was completed for Cecil Grace with a E . N . V . 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 . Grace made his attempt on 22 December 1910 , starting from Dover . He succeeded in crossing the English Channel , but landed near Calais due to poor visibility . 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 . He was sighted by the North Goodwin lightship , and a coastguard at Ramsgate reported hearing the sound of an aircraft engine some distance offshore , but no further trace of Grace or his aircraft were found . In late 1910 McClean , who was about to take part in an expedition to Fiji and Tasmania to observe a solar eclipse offered to loan two aircraft to the Admiralty for them to be used to train naval officers to fly , and Cecil Grace offered his services as an unpaid instructor . After Grace ' s death George Cockburn offered to replace him . These offers were accepted , and from the 200 volunteers Lieutenant s Charles R . Samson , R . Gregory , and Arthur M . Longmore from the Royal Navy and Lieutenant E . L . Gerrard of the Royal Marine Light Infantry were selected . They reported for flight training at Eastchurch airfield on 1 March 1911 and earned their wings in six weeks . In October 1911 , the Royal Navy purchased the two aircraft and established the Naval Flying School , Eastchurch , at Eastchurch airfield . Besides being used for training , S . 27 and Improved S . 27 aircraft also were used in various early naval aviation experiments . The most famous example was one of the two belonging to the Naval Flying School , Eastchurch , with the manufacturer ' s numbre S . 38 , which achieved a number of aviation firsts over a period of a few months in 1911 and 1912 . In 1911 , Lieutenant Longmore and Oswald Short installed streamlined air bags on the undercarriage struts and under the tail of Improved S . 27 No . 38 to enable the aircraft to land on water . On 1 December 1911 , Longmore used the aircraft to become the first person in the United Kingdom to take off from land and make a successful water landing when he landed in the river Medway off Sheerness , after which No . 38 was brought ashore and flown back to Eastchurch . 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 . The platform was later transferred to the battleship HMS " Hibernia " . S . 38 was one of four naval aircraft to take part in the 1912 Fleet Review at Weymouth , the others being a Short S . 41 tractor biplane , a Deperdussin monoplane and a Nieuport monoplane . It was flown by Samson ( now promoted to the rank of Commander ) and Lieut . Gregory . 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 dummy bomb by Gregory . On 9 May , 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 . 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 . Unable to gain enough height to fly over Tower Bridge , he flew between the bascules and the upper walkway of the bridge , and then flew under the remaining bridges before alighting at Westminster , skimming the water at Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge . This exploit did not amuse the authorities , and for his return journey he was obliged to taxy the aircraft down the Thames as far as Shadwell Basin , where on attempting take off the aircraft sideslipped , damaging one of the floats : the aircraft was returned to Eastchurch by road . 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 . Variants . S . 38 . Airframe number S . 38 was an Improved S . 27 , used by the RNAS . On 9 July 1912 , it was damaged while being hoisted aboard " HMS London " . It was returned to Shorts , and rebuilt with extensive modifications . The modified aircraft became the basis of a new type , the Short S . 38 . Short Triple Twin . Shorts airframe number S . 39 was given to an experimental twin - engined aircraft based on the Type S . 27 , the " Triple Twin " . This was powered by two 50 hp Gnome Omega engines , one in the front of the nacelle driving a pair of tractor propellers mounted on the interplane struts , with the chain drive to the left - hand propeller crossed so that the front propellers revolved in opposite directions , and the second engine mounted behind the trailing edge of the lower wing driving a pusher propeller . As first built and flown the wings were of equal span , with trailing edge ailerons fitted to both upper and lower wings . It was first flown by McClean on 18 September 1911 and bought by the Admiralty in June 1912 , being given the serial number T . 3 . A number of modifications were subsequently made to the aircraft . 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 October both upper and lower wings were extended , giving it a wingspan of , and the top wing was later further extended , giving it an upper span of . In early 1913 it 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 , In this form it was referred to as the Admiralty Type 3 , and had a rather better performance than a standard Type 38 , with a top speed of and a ceiling of over . It was among the aircraft used in France by the RNAS in the early months of the First World War , being used as a communications aircraft . Short Tandem Twin . The Tandem Twin was another early example of a twin engine aircraft . It was built for Francis McClean , using parts of S . 27 . fitted with a short nacelle on top of the lower wing with a Gnome Omega at either end , access to the cockpit being via a hole in the nacelle floor . Tail surfaces were modified by the addition of an extra pair of rectangular rudders above the tailplane . It was first flown by McClean on 29 October 1911 . with equal - span wings : extensions were later fitted to the upper wing . 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 . It was lent to the RNAS for pilot training and was eventually crashed by Samson . The aircraft was given the nicknames " the Vacuum Cleaner " and " the Gnome Sandwich " . Short S . 32 ( modified ) . In 1913 Frank McClean and J . H . Spottiswoode determined to undertake an arial expedition up the Nile . Realising that this would require an aircraft with a low wing loading McClean got Shorts to build him an aircraft which was largely a rebuild of S . 32 but possibly incorporated components from S . 33 and S . 34 . The resultant machine had an extra bay added to the wings and the overhanging extensions were enlarged , bringing the wingspan up to . 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 . The aircraft retained the original Gnome Lambda . However its performance was disappointing and McClean had a new design , the Short S . 80 , built . The airframe was subsequently further modified , principally by removing the extended wings , to convert it into a Type 38 . Nomenclature . 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 ' . Type numbers were given retrospectively , generally using the airframe number of the first aircraft of the type . In addition those aircraft originally owned by Frank McClean were given individual numbers by him , and aircraft operated by the Admiralty had a naval serial number : this system underwent a number of changes . After the First World War Shorts began giving aircraft a Design Index number , S . 1 being given to the Short Cockle . Replica . There is a non - flying replica of an S . 27 on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton