What the Sopwith Cuckoo was designed to do

Were the Sopwith Cuckoo's range and lack of arresting gear fatal flaws in the carrier torpedo-bomber concept?

No. Its planned mission was a relatively short carrier strike, and modern arresting gear did not yet exist; delays, scarce carriers, and engine shortages were more consequential obstacles.

The Cuckoo was not expected to fly a long overland mission from Britain. Its planned use was a carrier launch about 60 to 70 miles from Wilhelmshaven, followed by a torpedo attack and a return to the ship. Criticizing it for lacking modern arresting gear is anachronistic because contemporary deck cables were initially meant to keep landing aircraft from going over the side, not stop them as later systems did. The concept still depended on carriers, engines, and development time becoming available. In this counterfactual, an earlier start could have reduced competition for engines and made the Royal Naval Air Service's carrier torpedo-bomber experiment more achievable.