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 Paxton'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 RAF Museum Hendon and Brooklands Museum and a full-scale replica kit is sold by Airdrome Aeroplanes for homebuilders. Operational history Single-seat variants of the Tabloid went into production in 1914 and 36 eventually entered service with the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Deployed to France at