 Although two aircraft were handed over to Imperial Airways for crew training, in 1940 all three were impressed (along with their crews) into the RAF, before they could start civilian operation.They were modified by Shorts to S.26/M military configuration before delivery to the RAF as "X8275", "X8274" and "X8273" respectively.After modification at Rochester, Air to Surface Vessel (ASV) RDF (later called Radar) was fitted by Blackburn Aircraft Limited at Dumbarton in Scotland.