Did you know…
Why did the Beardmore W.B.III have unstaggered, folding wings?
Short answer
Because it was a Sopwith Pup adapted for shipboard service. The Navy required wings that could be folded by hand, so the wing cell was redesigned without stagger and with straight, parallel struts, plus an extra set of inner struts that made folding for stowage easier.
A Sopwith Pup adapted for the sea
The W.B.III was a development of the Sopwith Pup, which Beardmore was then manufacturing under license, specifically adapted for shipboard use.
Unstaggered so the wing could fold
The wing cell was redesigned without stagger and with an extra set of struts on the inner section, which made folding for stowage easier. The struts became straight and parallel, instead of the staggered arrangement of the Sopwith Pup, due to the Navy's requirement that the wings fold by hand. The redesign also reduced the dihedral angle.
A Lewis gun above the cockpit and fleet service
The armament was a .303 Lewis gun mounted on a special fitting ahead of the pilot's cockpit, allowing him to fire through an opening cut into the center section. Up to around a hundred aircraft were built, deployed in small numbers aboard various Royal Navy warships, including the aircraft carriers HMS Furious and HMS Argus and the seaplane carriers HMS Nairana and HMS Pegasus.
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