20 April 1914: Cecil Howard Pixton, flying a Sopwith Tabloid float plane, wins the Coupe d’Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider (commonly called the Schneider Trophy). Pixton completed 28 laps of a 10-kilometer triangular course at Monaco in 2 hours, 13-2/5 seconds. His average speed for the race was 137.442 kilometers per hour (85.403 miles per hour).
Pixton flew two additional laps, a total of 300 kilometers, in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 10 seconds, for an overall average speed of 139.355 kilometers per hour (86.591 miles per hour).
The Sopwith Tabloid was designed by Harry George Hawker. It was a single-place, single-engine, single-bay biplane. The prototype was equipped with skid landing gear, but this was soon changed to wheels. Roll control was accomplished by wing-warping. The single Schneider Cup racer had two floats under the wings and a small float under the tail. The racer was equipped with a 100-horsepower Gnome Monosoupape engine, turning a two-blade fixed-pitch propeller.
© 2019, Bryan R. Swopes