The Archive Photographs Series. The great Newcastle upon Tyne engineering company of Armstrong Whitworth branched out into aeronautical engineering in 1913 to build aeroplanes for the War Office and airships for the Admiralty. Intially, it built BE2a, BE2b and BE2c aeroplanes that had been designed by the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, but soon moved to build aircraft to its own designs, particular the FK3 and FK8 which were built in large numbers