With Total War having gripped Europe in the summer of 1914, the Tabloid was a welcomed sight for the British air service and a first-batch of the airplanes covered twelve flying machines. These, like the racer model before them, were delivered with 100 horsepower Gnome engines. Though initially unarmed, the line was soon modified to fit a single 7.7mm Lewis Gun through an oblique-angled arrangement. The upper wing section had a portion cut-out to accommodate the weapon and the intended action of moving in under a potential aerial target and firing. Later models were also delivered with conventional ailerons to replace the awkward wing-warping technique.
Some navy models installed a Lewis Gun in a more typical fashion at the upper wing assembly to help clear the propeller arc. Still another example mounted a Lewis Gun over the nose, set to fire through the spinning propeller blades. Since the British lacked interrupter gear at this point in the war, "deflector" wedges were installed on the blades to deflect bullets away from the aircraft (and pilot).
Approximately forty-two biplanes were completed to the Tabloid standard and a further 136 units were built to follow the form of the racing Schneider model. The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) both relied on the type in the early-going and the fast biplanes were typically used as unarmed scouts to oversee battlefield situations, as light bombers to keep the enemy in check or as "balloon busters" to keep the German Zeppelin fleet honest.
The aircraft was illegally copied and built in Russia by Lebed and used in the reconnaissance role as the Lebed VII. The related Lebed VIII sported a modified landing gear arrangement. The Empire of Japan observed enough of the aircraft during a trip to Britain that it adopted the design in a one-off seaplane model form as the Yokosuka "Navy Ha-Go Small Seaplane" for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) service.
Despite proving too fragile for long term military service (it was abandoned as soon as the spring of 1915), the Tabloid formed the starting point of a lineage that ultimately begat the stellar Sopwith Camel fighting biplane. Beyond the Schneider racer, the lineage included the Sopwith "Baby" and the Sopwith "Half-Strutter", the company's first true fighter warplane - both owed their existence to the original Tabloid.
Sopwith Tabloids / Schneiders served with RFC No.3 Squadron as well as the Royal Air Force's No.201 Squadron.
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