The Sopwith Aviation Company Tabloid was originally designed as sports aircraft and was first flown by Harry Hawker on 27 November 1913. It was a two-seater single-bay biplane with a side-by-side seating configuration. It was powered by a Gnôme rotary and had warping wings for lateral control.

A single-seat Tabloid was quickly mounted on floats and entered in the 1914 Schneider Trophy in Monaco – which it handily won giving Britain her first victory in the annual contest piloted by Howard Pixton, at the same time setting a world seaplane speed record at 92 mph. It’s turn of speed so demoralised the other dozen or so entries from 6 countries that only one other even bothered to take off. The performance was so convincing that the British military ordered many of these aircraft, which was developed into the Sopwith Schneider. It therefore became the first single-seat scout anywhere to go into production for military use.

Sopwith Tabloid Article

A single-bay biplane, the two-spar wooden wings and wooden fuselage are fabric covered. Wing warping rather than ailerons was used, and conventional tail surfaces were fitted. Two skids were normally fitted forward of the wheels.

Some aircraft were fitted experimentally with a Lewis machine gun above the wing centre section or on the side of the fuselage, with steel plates on the airscrew blades to deflect bullets. A few 20 lb bombs could be carried.

The Tabloid was ordered by both the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service; the latter using it for some of the earliest strategic bombing attacks against Germany. Thirty-six Tabloid were delivered for the RNAS and RFC between October 1914 and June 1915. When the 1914 18 War started, Tabloids went to Belgium with a squadron of the RNAS.

The Royal Naval Air Service used their Tabloids in early bombing attacks against the airship sheds at Cologne and Dusseldorf in an attempt to deny the Germans the use of operating bases close to the North Sea. The first raid took place on 22 September 1914 and although not a success was the first ever air raid on Germany. The second raid was much more successful. In one raid F1t. Lt. R.L.G.Marix destroyed an airship shed at Dusseldorf with his 20 lb bombs, complete with the secret Zeppelin Z.1X inside.

Royal Flying Corps Tabloids were used for scouting duties and were involved in some of the earliest experiments in arming aircraft. From February 1915 a number of Tabloids were fitted with Lewis machine-guns. Although it was one of the first aircraft to have a machine gun fitted to fire through the propeller arc it was only after the Tabloid had been withdrawn from operational service in the spring of 1915 that a successful interrupter gear was developed.

Replica ultralight:
Circa Reproductions Sopwith Tabloid / Baby

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Engine: Gnome Monosoupape, 80 hp / 75kW
Span: 25 ft. 6 in / 7.76 m
Length: 20 ft. 4 in / 6.1 m
Height: 8 ft. 5 in / 2.56 m
Wing chord: 5 ft. 11 in
Wing area: 241.3 sq. ft / 22.3 sq.m
Weight empty: 730 lb
Loaded weight: 1120 lb
ROC: 1200 fpm
Endurance: 2.5 hr
Max speed: 80 kt / 92 mph / 148km/h
Landing speed: 32 kt / 59 km/h
Seats: 2

Engine: Gnome, 100 hp
Wingspan: 25 ft 6 in / 7.77 m
Length: 20 ft 4 in / 6.20 m
Height: 8 ft 5 in / 2.57 m
Weight: 1120 lb / 508 kg
Max speed: 92 mph / 148 kph
Ceiling: 15,000 ft / 4572 m
Endurance: 3.30 hrs
Armament: 1 x mg
Crew: 1

The 1912 Somerville Biplane was an exhibition and sightseeing ship for Earl S Daughery, who relocated to Long Beach CA and founded its municipal airport.

Coal City’s Illinois Aero Construction Co (IAC) initials were on the plane and 51; most likely when it was used as a trainer at IAC’s flying school.

The “Hoch-Tief-Doppeldecker” built by the “Deutsche Sommer Flugzeugwerke GmbH” at Frankfurt-Rebstock in 1912. This machine was designed by Robert Sommer and had a circular fuselage, was powered by a 70 hp Hoffmann “Rotor” 7-cylinder engine. The lower wings were attached direct to the landing gear, therefore there was some space between wings and body.

The Sommer 1910 Biplane was designed by Roger Sommer. It was a pusher configuration biplane resembling the successful Farman III, and was built in large numbers for the time. One was owned by Charles Rolls.

In May 1909 Sommer bought a Farman III aircraft, and on 7 August 1909 he gained fame in this by breaking the endurance record held by Wilbur Wright, making a flight lasting 2 hr 27 min 15 sec. Later that year he made a successful appearance at the Doncaster flight meeting, winning the prize for the greatest distance flown during the meeting. Meanwhile, he had started building an aircraft of his own design at Mouzon in the Ardennes, where his family had a felt-making business.

The design of the Sommer biplane was derived from that of the Farman III, the aircraft being a pusher configuration equal-span biplane powered by a 50 hp (37 kW) Gnome Omega. Lateral control was effected by D-shaped ailerons on the upper wing. A single elevator was mounted in front of the wings: behind the wings wire-braced wooden booms carried a horizontal surface which was operated independently of the front elevator and was used to adjust the aircraft’s trim rather than for control purposes. Early examples has a single large rudder mounted below this: this was later changed to four smaller rudders, two above it and two below, and subsequently changed again to one above and one below. The twin skids of the undercarriage were extended forwards to form part of the supporting structure for the elevator, and a single pair of wheels were mounted on an axle between the skids. A two-seat “Military” version with an extended upper wing was produced later.

The prototype was first flown by Sommer on 4 January 1910 at Mouzon, when he managed three flights of over 4 km (2.5 mi) This first machine was sold to a M. Viateaux within two weeks, and by the end of February he had built a replacement and established a flying school at Mouzon. A large number of examples were built: by spring 1910 Sommer had sixty aircraft on order. Sommer had established flying school at Douzy using his machines.

One example was bought by Charles Rolls, and was exhibited on the Royal Aero Society stand at the 1910 Aero Show at Olympia

A small number of license-built copies of the Sommer biplane were built in England by Humber. These were of mixed steel and wood construction, and one was used to carry out the world’s first official mail-carrying flight, when 6,500 letters were flown by Henri Pequet from the United Provinces Exhibition at Allahabad to Naini. The letters bore an official frank “First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition, Allahabad, 1911”, the text surrounding a drawing of the aircraft.

The first aeroplane flight in China was most likely on February 21, 1911, with René Vallon and his Sommer biplane flying over Shanghai. Like other entrepreneurial aviators, he was hoping to sell the concept to onlookers.

Powerplant: 1 × Gnome Omega 7, 37 kW (50 hp)
Wingspan: 10.36 m (34 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 36 m2 (390 sq ft)
Length: 12.5 m (41 ft 0 in)
Crew: 1
Capacity: 1