Beardmore W.B.IV and W.B.V

Single-seat two bay biplane ship-based fighter to meet Admiralty Specification N.1(a). The aircraft embodied several interesting features. The engine was mounted aft of the cockpit and drove the propeller via an extension shaft which passed between the pilot's legs, with the radiator placed behind the engine, mounted between the rear interplane struts.  The pilot was afforded an excellent all-round field of view, his cockpit being raised high in the nose of the aircraft, forward of the wings, and was watertight below the coaming. The fuselage was unusual in itself in being entirely plywood-clad, and another innovation was the provision of a large flotation chamber faired into the underside of the nose and projecting on each side to form a large lateral buoyancy surface. Wingtip floats were incorporated to stabilise the aircraft in the event of it alighting on the water in an emergency, and the undercarriage was jettisonable. The equal span mainplanes could be folded, were of unequal chord and fitted with ailerons on the upper mainplanes only. The tailplane featured a fixed fin above and below the fuselage, with a rudder featuring a small aerodynamic 'comma' balance. Armament comprised a single synchronised 0.303 in Vickers gun mounted immediately behind the airscrew on the port side, the breech casing being in the fuselage. The installation was very neat and there were separate case and link chutes. Forward of the watertight cockpit was a sturdy tripod for a 0.303 in Lewis gun. One 200 h.p. Hispano-Suiza 8 powerplant.

W.B. IV Specification
Span	Length	Height	Wing Area	Empty Wt	Max AUW	Cruise Speed	Maximum Speed	Endurance	Service Ceiling
35 ft 10 in	26 ft 6 in	9 ft 10 in	350 sq ft	2055 lb	2595 lb		110 mph/ 96 kn	2-1/2 hr	14000 ft
10.92 m	8.08 m	3 m	32.52 m2	932 kg	1177 kg		177 km/h		4267 m

Single-seat two bay biplane ship-based fighter to meet Admiralty Specification N.1(a), as the WB.IV, to which it bore some resemblance. The upper wing and tailplane were identical to the W.B.IV, albeit with slightly greater fin area, but the lower wing was now of the same chord as the upper and featured no stagger. The aircraft featured folding wings, a jettisonable undercarriage and inflatable flotation bags which, when not inflated, lay flush along the underside of the lower wing leading edge. The engine was located conventionally in the nose of the aircraft, with the pilot under the upper centre section. The aircraft was specifically designed to carry the French 37-mm Puteaux cannon between the cylinder blocks of its Hispano-Suiza eight-cylinder water-cooled engine, the gun’s muzzle projecting forward into the hollow propeller shaft, and the breech extending aft into the pilot’s cockpit forward of the control column. The cannon was quickly removed and a more conventional armament mounted, this comprising a single synchronised 0.303-in Vickers gun and a 0.303-in Lewis gun on a tripod ahead of the cockpit and firing through a cutout in the upper wing centre section. One 200 h.p. Hispano-Suiza 8Bd powerplant.

W.B.V Specification
Span	Length	Height	Wing Area	Empty Wt	Max AUW	Cruise Speed	Maximum Speed	Endurance	Service Ceiling
35 ft 10 in	26 ft 7 in	11 ft 10 in	394 sq ft	1860 lb	2500 lb		112 mph/ 97 kn	2-1/2 hr	14000 ft
10.92 m	8.1 m	3.61 m	36.6 m2	844 kg	1134 kg		180 km/h		4267 m