Short Empire S.30 Mk I

In the sub-mark breakdown of the Short Empire, the S.30 Mk I designation covers just one aircraft powered by four Bristol Perseus XIIc sleeve-valve engines. Of the nine S.30s that left Rochester, four became the Mk III Atlantic (Cabot, Caribou, Clyde and Connemara), three went to TEAL in New Zealand (Mk II and Mk IV), and Cathay (G-AFKZ) was finished as a separate Mk I with Pegasus Xc poppet-valve engines. By elimination, the Perseus-powered S.30 Mk I is G-AFCT Champion, constructor's number S.879, the first S.30 to be registered and named.

In late 1937 Imperial Airways topped up its original order for 28 flying boats with another 11 Empires; the first three of that follow-on batch were standard S.23s for Qantas Empire Airways, while the rest carried detail changes and the S.30 designation. According to the airframe history compiled by aussieairliners.org, the order for G-AFCT was placed on 21 October 1937, and it was the first of the new S.30 boats intended for the Bermuda service. It was the thirty-second Empire boat completed and flown by Short Brothers at Rochester, Kent. It entered the British register as G-AFCT, certificate of registration 8204, on 15 November 1937, the same date shown for its sisters Cabot and Caribou.

The key change in the series was the powerplant: four 890 hp (660 kW) Bristol Perseus XIIc engines, each 85 lb (39 kg) lighter and 17.3% more fuel-efficient than the Pegasus it replaced, although less powerful. The airframe was strengthened, mainly with heavier-gauge sheeting on hull and wings. On Champion fuel capacity rose to 1,500 imperial gallons (about 6.8 m³) and the all-up weight of 48,000 lb (21,780 kg) was later increased to 53,000 lb (24,200 kg); it cruised at 164 mph (about 264 km/h) with a range of 2,000 km. The generic series figures quoted by English Wikipedia (46,000 lb, about 21,000 kg, and 2,400 km) do not match this airframe exactly. During construction the navigation hatch was omitted and replaced by a 21-inch (53 cm) observation dome on the starboard side, between frames 11 and 12.

The hull was launched on the Medway at Rochester in September 1938 and first flew as G-AFCT on 28 September 1938. Between 17 and 21 October it was fitted with wooden propellers for trials, its certificate of airworthiness was issued on 27 October, and on 4 November 1938 it was delivered to Imperial Airways under the name Champion. This chronology conflicts with English Wikipedia, which credits Cabot (G-AFCU), in December 1938, with the first flight of the revised series. Photographs show Champion in full Imperial Airways livery at Hythe in November 1938 and at Rose Bay, Sydney, on an unknown date.

Imperial Airways merged into the British Overseas Airways Corporation on 1 April 1940, and ownership of G-AFCT officially passed to BOAC on 27 August 1940, according to the British G-AF register. Unlike Cabot and Caribou, impressed by the RAF and destroyed in Norway in May 1940, Champion stayed in civil service. The memoir of Captain James Peers, who flew some 200 Durban–Cairo round trips from the Congella base at Durban, lists it among the S.30s he flew. The captured material does not record whether this particular aircraft received the Pegasus XXII engines with which many S.23s, S.30s and S.33s were re-engined during the war.

Champion was withdrawn from service at Hythe, Southampton, on 16 March 1947 and broken up there the same year.