On 10 March 1925, the maiden flight of the first production aircraft was conducted; piloted by Henry Charles Biard. While this flight was largely successful, minor damage to one of the wingtip floats was sustained, leading to their angle of incidence being quickly adjusted to prevent reoccurrence prior to their complete redesign later on. Four days later, the contractor's trials were completed, thus the Southampton was promptly flown to Felixstowe, where it underwent type trials. These were passed with relative ease, including its ability to maintain altitude on only a single engine, leading to the aircraft's formal delivery to the Royal Air Force (RAF) occurring during mid-1925.