Biplanes remained useful for aircraft carrying heavy loads, which is why wing layout alone cannot identify a design's technological generation. The Cuckoo supplies the genuine World War I comparison: it was a capable wartime aircraft, yet its engine, payload, speed, range, and systems were far behind the later Swordfish. The performance gap was large enough that even a torpedo-carrying Swordfish could serve as combat air patrol against Cuckoos, with a greater advantage after exchanging the torpedo for rockets. Multiple navies still used or considered biplane torpedo bombers in the mid-to-late 1930s because the configuration could suit that load-carrying role. Judging the Swordfish by silhouette therefore misses the engineering choices and performance improvements separating the two aircraft.
Notable Point · 30:08-32:08
Why a biplane layout does not make the Swordfish a World War I design
The Cuckoo provides a genuine World War I baseline for rejecting the claim that every biplane belongs to the same technological era.