Built by Short Brothers and (under licence) by Pobjoy Airmotors and Aircraft Ltd. in Rochester, Kent between 1933 and 1937. 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. Of the civilian Scions, at least two were still operating in Australia in 1966, one having been re-engined with de Havilland Gipsy Minor engines. The Scion and the later Scion II version were high wing cantilever monoplanes with fabric-covered metal wings and fuselage, the latter providing an enclosed cabin for the pilot and 5–6 passengers. The tail unit comprised a cantilever tailplane with a single fin and rudder. The prototype aircraft was powered by two 80 hp (60 kW) Pobjoy R radial engines; the production aircraft however were fitted with the 90 hp (67 kW) Pobjoy Niagara III radial engines. The engines in the Scion were mounted with thrust-lines below the chord-line of the wings; in the Scion II they were raised so that the thrust-lines were aligned with the chord-line, to avoid trim changes in pitch with changes in power. Both the Scion and the Scion II were produced as either landplanes or floatplanes, the majority as landplanes (see the table below). On the landplanes the landing gear comprised a single wheel on each side of the fuselage, mounted on a vertical coil-spring and oleo leg inboard of the engine; there was a small castoring tailwheel mounted below the rear end of the fuselage. A larger four engine version called the Short Scion Senior was also built. For details of this aircraft, click here. Short Scion Senior
