Beardmore W.B.III

The Beardmore WB.III was a British carrier-based fighter biplane of World War I. It was a development of the Sopwith Pup that Beardmore was then building under licence, but was specially adapted for shipboard use.

Design and development
Compared to the Sopwith Pup on which it was based, the WB.III featured a redesigned wing cellule with no stagger and an extra set of struts inboard, facilitating folding for stowage; a modified fuselage that carried emergency floatation gear; and main undercarriage that could be folded for stowage on the WB.IIIF. Later examples, designated WB.IIID, could jettison their undercarriage for safer water landings.

As many as one hundred were built, with small numbers deployed on various Royal Navy warships including the aircraft carriers HMS Furious (47) and HMS Argus (I49); and seaplane tenders HMS Nairana and HMS Pegasus. Performance was inferior that of to the Pup and it was largely superseded by the Sopwith 2F1 Ships Camel.

Operators

 * Royal Naval Air Service
 * Royal Naval Air Service