The elegant, unmistakably French fighter biplane received by the American 95th Aero Squadron in February 1918 was the first of some 297 purchased by the U.S.A. in World War One to supplement its limited supplies of SPAD 13C.1s. It was the shapely Nieuport N.28C-1 and, although it was to achieve a degree of fame in the hands of a few outstanding pilots (Lufbery and Rickenbacker to name but two), as a fighter it was flawed from the outset and rejected for front-line use by the French Air Service, considering it inferior to the SPAD, which had been ordered into full production as their principal fighter aircraft in 1917. (What a way to treat your new-found and much needed Allies!) The Nieuport 28 was the culmination of a design evolution whose origins lay in a successful series of sesquiplane fighters by Gustave Delage, of which the little Nieuport Model 11 of 1915 was the first to win fame in combat.
No comments:
Post a Comment