The Sopwith Baby was a single-seat floatplane, developed from the earlier Sopwith Schneider floatplane racer. It differed from the Schneider primarily in having a different engine fit and cowl, and a revised fin and rudder.

Babies were built by several manufacturers with a number of small detail changes. In common with other Sopwith designs, some aircraft had a center-section cut-out, to improve upward visibility, and some didn’t. Typical armament in British (exclusively RNAS) service was a Lewis machine gun, either fixed forward along the centerline or mounted at an oblique angle to fire upwards through the center section. A small bomb load (two 65lb. bombs) could also be carried.

The primary use of the Baby was port defense and near-shore scouting. Babies were also used for anti-submarine patrols and for top cover over coastal convoys. Babies operated from shore stations in France and the UK, from seaplane carriers in the North Sea and Mediterranean, and from cruisers and battleships.

By 1918 the Baby was declared obsolete in British service, but several countries used them in utility roles after the war, the largest such user being Norway, who used Babies into the 1930’s.