Editing Sopwith Tabloid (section)

==Design and development==
The original Tabloid, which was first flown by [[Harry Hawker]] on 27 November 1913, was a two-seat single-bay biplane with a side-by-side seating, which was unusual at the time. The equal-span wings were staggered and used [[wing warping]] for lateral control. The rectangular-section [[fuselage]] was a conventional wire-braced wooden structure with the forward section covered in aluminium sheet and the remainder, aft of the cockpit, covered in fabric. The wings were also of wood, covered with fabric. The tail surfaces were of steel tubing, fabric-covered, and the undercarriage had a pair of forward-projecting skids in addition to the wheels. The most distinctive feature of the design was the engine cowling, which almost entirely covered the upper half of the engine.

The prototype was  powered by an {{cvt|80|hp}} [[Gnome Lambda]] [[rotary engine]] and in a trial flown by [[Harry Hawker]] at [[Farnborough, Hampshire|Farnborough]] the Tabloid reached {{cvt|92|mph}} and took only one minute to reach {{cvt|1200|ft}} while carrying a passenger and enough fuel for 2{{frac|1|2}} hours.  A production order from the [[War Office]] for the [[Royal Flying Corps]] was placed early in 1914, and a total of 40 were built to this specification. However, the aircraft's speed made it an obvious candidate for entry to the [[Schneider Trophy]] competition.

[[File:Sopwith Tabloid on floats which won the 1914 Schneider Race.jpg|thumb|Sopwith Tabloid on floats which won the 1914 Schneider Race]]

Accordingly, a floatplane adaptation was prepared, to be powered by a {{cvt|100|hp}} [[Gnome Monosoupape]], which [[Thomas Sopwith|T.O.M. Sopwith]] personally collected from Paris. This was initially fitted with a single central float, but on its first taxiing trials with [[Howard Pixton]] at the controls the aircraft turned over as soon as the engine was started, and remained in the water for some hours before it could be retrieved. Great effort was made to make the waterlogged machine airworthy, and, lacking the time to prepare a new set of floats, the existing float was simply sawn in half down the middle and converted into a pair of floats.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.kingstonaviation.org/stories/fred-sigrist-and-the-tabloid.html|title=Obituary of Fred Sigrist|type=letters|newspaper=[[The Times]]|first=Thomas|last=Sopwith|author-link=Thomas Sopwith|date=14 December 1957}}</ref> After a satisfactory test flight on 7 April the aircraft was shipped to Monaco, where the competition was to take place.

The competition was won by Pixton.<ref group=note>The race was technically a time trial as each contestant departed in their own time and was timed, rather than them racing directly against each other.</ref> Sopwith did not expect to win,<ref name=Pixton278>Pixton, 2014, p.278</ref> but all of the leading contenders dropped out from mechanical problems connected to their nearly universal use of a larger two row rotary engine theoretically developing {{cvt|160|hp}} to the Sopwith's 100, leaving the Sopwith to lap the only remaining contender in a {{cvt|100|hp}} [[FBA Type A]] [[flying boat]] even before it stopped to refuel.<ref name=Pixton285>Pixton, 2014, p.285</ref> Pixton  completed his first circuit in around two thirds of the time taken by the FBA. One other competitor broke his prop without completing the race. It was the first British designed and built aircraft to win a major international contest.<ref name=Pixton297>Pixton, 2014, p.297</ref> Much was made of the British design, with a British made Integral propeller, and protected with British cellon dope in the British press.<ref name=Pixton287>Pixton, 2014, p.287</ref> Despite the other competitors dropping out, the Sopwith's speed, coupled with Pixton's flying skill, made for a convincing victory. The prizewinning variant was then known as the Sopwith Schneider. After completing the twenty-eight circuits required for the actual race, at an average speed of {{cvt|86.75|mph}} and suffering from a misfiring cylinder, he made additional laps to set a new world record for seaplanes.<ref name="brucei p734-5">Bruce ''Flight'' 8 November 1957, pp. 734–735.</ref>

The first order, for twelve "Schneider" [[floatplane]] aircraft, was placed in November 1914 by the [[Royal Naval Air Service]].<ref name=BruceDatafile3>Bruce, 1996, p.3</ref> Like the race winner, these were powered by the {{cvt|100|hp}} Monosoupape and differed only in minor detail from the racer - most noticeably in the redesigned tail float. Later production aircraft were fitted with [[ailerons]] in place of wing-warping, and were fitted with a [[Lewis gun]] firing upwards through an opening in the wing centre-section, and development would lead to the [[Sopwith Baby]].

In all 160 were built. No original Tabloids or Schneiders survive but full-size reproductions  are displayed at the [[RAF Museum]] Hendon and [[Brooklands Museum]] and a full-scale replica kit is sold by [[Airdrome Aeroplanes]] for homebuilders.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.airdromeaeroplanes.com/ |title=Airdrome Aeroplanes ~ Holden, MO|access-date=6 July 2017}}</ref>