The Sherpa's first flight, piloted by Shorts' Chief Test Pilot, Tom Brooke-Smith, was on 4 October 1953. Brooke-Smith had also piloted the earlier experimental glider aircraft, the Short SB.1, upon which the Sherpa was based. Although he had a crash in the SB.1, Brooke-Smith recovered and was able to undertake the test programme of the redesignated SB.4 (registered as "G-14-1") throughout 1953–54. (Incidentally, the Sherpa was named following the conquest of Mount Everest but derived its name specifically from its company designation "Short & Harland Experimental Research Prototype Aircraft.)