In 1916, the Scout's designer, Harris Booth moved to Blackburn where he created a heavily revised aircraft, the Triplane.

[1] The layout of both Scout and Triplane was determined largely by the Admiralty requirement to carry a quick-firing, recoilless Davis gun that used 2 lb (1 kg) shells.

At the time, there was no way of synchronising such a weapon with the propeller, or of mounting it elsewhere than the fuselage, so a pusher configuration was necessary, the pilot sitting in a nacelle with the gun in its nose.

The mid-line of the nacelle, with the engine at its rear, was on the centre plane, giving the pilot a slightly inferior view than from the Scout.

The "reversed" undercarriage of the Scout was abandoned and the mainwheels were mounted on a single axle supported by two pairs of struts to the nacelle.