Sopwith Tabloid (oz4066)

 

Sopwith Tabloid (oz4066) by Chris Moes 1975 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Sopwith Tabloid. Stand-off scale pre-WWI racer, biplane for 3 channel RC. Original had OS Max .20 engine, mounted inverted.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 19/04/2020: Added article, thanks to Pit.

Quote: "Sopwith Tabloid, by Chris Moes. The author/designer of our popular Woody Pusher (Aug '74 MB) presents another interesting scale model, the plane on the cover. Three channel radio is perfect - there were no ailerons on early originals!

The 1913 Sopwith Tabloid was an entirely new conception in aircraft design. When one considers its contemporaries, it is truly a classic example of compact simplicity. Designed and developed before the first great war, it proved to be the shape of things to come during the war years.

The prototype flew in public for the first time at Hendon, England, in November 1913. With Harry Hawker as pilot, and one passenger, it achieved a level speed of 92 mph and climbed to 1200 ft in one minute. On April 20th 1914, Howard Pixton flew a float equipped version to victory in the Schneider Race for seaplanes at an average speed of 86.78 mph (nearly double the speed of the 1913 winner).

It was at about this time that Tabloids entered military production, retaining the wheel and skid landing gear of the prototype, but otherwise similar to the Schneider machine. Major JT McCudden VC recorded the arrival of the first pair of RFC Tabloids at St Quentin, France in August of 1914: They did not avail us much as fighting machines, in that they were not fitted in any way with firearms, but they could and did perform excellently from a scouting point of view.

Military production of Tabloids stopped at around forty. Most of these were equipped with Le Rhone 80 hp rotary engines, were covered in clear doped fabric, lacked ailerons (wing warping), and had the skid-wheel landing gear.

And so goes a brief history of this interesting, elegant, but not so well known aircraft. Now, let's look at the model. So why did I choose to build a model of the Tabloid?

First of all, I love biplanes. For those of you who have flown biplanes - well, you know what I'm talking about. For those who haven't, you're really missing something.

In my search for a suitable scale subject. I soon came across three-views of the Tabloid. It really has a great deal going for it; lots of area, simple yet attractive lines, and reasonable moments (which meant I shouldn't have to add any lead).

It also had landing skids to be contended with. Well, they were beneficial on the real one, so no reason why they shouldn't be on the model. In fact, because of the skids, the landing gear can be far enough back to eliminate ground looping without having to worry about nose overs.

But most important, my models (usually scale) have got to be a little different. The Tabloid fits this specification nicely. Aside from its landing gear, the model has a few other unique but advantageous characteristics. The fact that the fabric need only be clear doped helps keep the weight down, especially in the tail. Mine is under 3 lbs. wet.

The cable controlled surfaces are per-haps a bit more work to install, but are well worth the effort They are surprisingly direct in their action and look great.

When I designed the model, l was equipped with only a three channel radio, so the prototype's lack of ailerons looked very inviting. With the dihedral increased slightly (from scale), the mod-el is a marvelous performer with only REM controls.

I can already imagine people thinking, I know, I'll beef it up, add ailerons (later Tabloids did have them), and use that new .35. Well, please resist the temptation. Build light, use only enough power to safely fly it, and I can assure, you will be amply rewarded. Many pilots feel they should have a 'reserve' of power in scale planes. An excellent idea, but all too often, these pilots are using their reserve all the time, and totally destroy realism by the excess speed. A habit develops, and they've lost the technique of flying slow..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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Sopwith Tabloid (oz4066) by Chris Moes 1975 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz4066)
    Sopwith Tabloid
    by Chris Moes
    from Model Builder
    August 1975 
    42in span
    Scale IC R/C Biplane Racer Civil
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
    got article :)
  • Submitted: 25/02/2013
    Filesize: 952KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: theshadow
    Downloads: 1631

ScaleType:
  • Sopwith_Tabloid | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
    ------------
    Test link:
    search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)


    ScaleType: This (oz4066) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.


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    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

Sopwith Tabloid (oz4066) by Chris Moes 1975 - pic 003.jpg
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Sopwith Tabloid (oz4066) by Chris Moes 1975 - pic 004.jpg
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Notes

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