Fighter aircraft use "C" (Nieuport 17 C.1). Although the term "fighter" specifies aircraft designed to shoot down other aircraft, such designs are often also useful as multirole fighter-bombers, strike fighters, and sometimes lighter, fighter-sized tactical ground-attack aircraft. This has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other "fighting scouts" of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. In World War II, the USAAF and RAF often favored fighters over dedicated light bombers or dive bombers, and types such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Hawker Hurricane that were no longer competitive as aerial combat fighters were
Sopwith Special torpedo seaplane Type C it could not lift its design load, it went back to Sopwith's for wing modifications. It returned to Calshot but was found still unfit for the torpedo dropping role. In November it was modified to carry bombs, but by January it was being broken up. In the meantime, a modified Short Admiralty Type 81 (S.84, RNAS serial 121) had become the first British aircraft to drop a torpedo, on 27 July 1914. Sopwith Special torpedo seaplane Type C The Sopwith Special torpedo seaplane Type C was the first British aircraft designed to drop torpedoes. A single-engine biplane seaplane, it flew