Fairey III

The Fairey III was a family of reconnaissance biplanes that had a very long production and service history, built both as landplanes and as seaplanes. Its prototype was the N.10 floatplane, designed and built in 1917 to an Admiralty specification for a carrier-based seaplane for the Royal Naval Air Service, and the type first flew on 14 September 1917. Successive models, including the IIID and the IIIF, were built for the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Air Force and foreign air arms, and examples were still in use during the Second World War.