The Cuckoo was developed specifically for carrier torpedo attack. Beatty favored additional converted merchant ships, while Commodore Sueter planned around the ships already available. Sopwith's initial design was suited to slow, hand-built production, so Blackburn simplified it for manufacture in larger numbers. Even after that work, only 90 aircraft had been delivered by 11 November 1918. The proposed force of 100 to 120 depended on bringing the aircraft and full-length flight-deck carriers into service together. Earlier carrier orders could have brought the aircraft program forward using technology already available.
Chapter · 19:07-23:15
The Sopwith Cuckoo and the planned 100-aircraft strike
A planned Wilhelmshaven attack depended on mass-producing the Sopwith Cuckoo and assembling roughly 100 to 120 carrier torpedo bombers.