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
Gnome Lambda rotary engine and in a trial flown by
Harry Hawker at
Farnborough the Tabloid reached and took only one minute to reach while carrying a passenger and enough fuel for 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. Accordingly, a floatplane adaptation was prepared, to be powered by a
Gnome Monosoupape, which
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. 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. Sopwith did not expect to win, 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 to the Sopwith's 100, leaving the Sopwith to lap the only remaining contender in a
FBA Type A flying boat even before it stopped to refuel. 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. Much was made of the British design, with a British made Integral propeller, and protected with British cellon dope in the British press. 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 and suffering from a misfiring cylinder, he made additional laps to set a new world record for seaplanes. The first order, for twelve "Schneider"
floatplane aircraft, was placed in November 1914 by the
Royal Naval Air Service. Like the race winner, these were powered by the 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
Royal Air Force Museum London, Hendon and
Brooklands Museum and a full-scale replica kit is sold by
Airdrome Aeroplanes for homebuilders. ==Operational history==