Sopwith Cuckoo

While several seaplanes had be built to carry a torpedo, the Sopwith T.1 Cuckoo was the first British torpedo carrier with a land undercarriage. It was envisioned to be carried aboard a carrier and the wings could fold backwards. While the prototype used a 200hp Hispano-Suiza vee engine, those were desperately needed for the R.A.F. S.E.5a, so a Sunbeam Arab or Wolseley Viper was used instead. Both the engine and the plane (being sub-contracted to an inexperienced builder) experienced delays, and of the initial orders of 350 planes only 90 had been delivered by the Armistice. One squadron was ready to fly from the HMS Argus by 19 October 1918, but the war came to an end before any missions were flown.

Three others had been assigned to the Furious and 32 were awaiting delivery at the end of the war. Cuckoos were declared obsolete in 1923, but six Mk.IIs supplied to Japan became the foundation of Japanese torpedo-bomber designs.