Medway Aircraft Preservation Society Rochester Airport October 16, 2024

The Medway Aircraft Preservation Society, Ltd (MAPSL) has an impressive record of restoring aircraft, mostly from the World War Two. Completed projects include; Spitfires, Hurricanes, a Defiant, Battle. The current project due to be completed in six to nine months time is the Short S.16 Scion II Floatplane (G-AEZF). Designed by Short Brothers in 1933, the Scion was built under licence by Pobjoy Airmotors and Aircraft Limited in Rochester, Kent between 1933 and 1937 as a six seat passenger aircraft. Only 22 were built, the prototype flew a schedule service between Rochester and Southend. G-AEZF was constructed as a floatplane for service by Elders Colonial Airways in Sierra Leone between Bathurst (Gambia) and Freetown. Later it was impressed to the war effort it was converted to a land plane. After the war it continued to fly until 1953 with Air Couriers before it was abandoned behind a hangar at Southend. Re-discovered in the 1990s various attempts were made to restore it at Southend and Redhill. MAPSL took over the restoration to museum standard in 2013 at Rochester.

Left to right: Short S.16 Scion II Floatplane (G-AEZF). The new float (left) has been constructed using a float (right) borrowed from the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Belfast.

Left to right: Short S.16 Scion II Floatplane (G-AEZF), volunteer restorers are working on the rear fuselage.