British Nieuports by David Fleming

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British Nieuport Scouts

By: David Fleming

In spite of their marked inferiority to British designed types, the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service made use of most of the Nieuport Scout family.

Nie 11

The RFC used a few Nie 11s, mainly for second line duties such as message runs, shopping in Paris etc etc. They were not popular, most pilots prefering the DH2.

Nie 16

Due to the RFC's dislike of the 11s, the RNAS used a few Nie16s. These were used as general runarounds, but such was the dislike for them as warplanes that the pilots held a competition to see who could prang the most in a week.

Nie 17

Slightly better received, if only because they were a pretty silver colour, the RFC & RNAS Nie17s spent most of their time pretending to be German Albatros fighters for Charlie Chaplin films, including "Red Baron Shmaron", " Cowl at the (Man on the) Moon" and "Last One Home's a Knockwurst"

Nie 17bis, 23, 24 & 27

The RFC used these solely as airfield decoys, although the 5 colour camouflaged ones were singularly useless at this purpose!! In spite of this, RFC and RNAS Neiuports make great model subjects, much nicer than silly old French ones.