03201 FRENCH FIGHTER NIEUPORT 16C (LT.ALBERT BALL)

Nieuport 11 is a French mixed biplane fighter from the First World War. The front of the fuselage was made of steel pipes, and the rear was made of wood in the form of a fabric covered truss. Flaps: upper double-girder, lower single-girder with a slight rise, covered with cloth. Wooden posts in the chamber of the V-shaped lobes. The tail is made of steel tubes, covered with a cloth. No tailplane, only rudder floating. The prototype flight took place in 1915, and a year later the machine entered line service. The Nieuport 11 was small, very maneuverable and quite fast. The Le Rhone 9C engine with 80 HP was used as the drive. The plane also had very good flight properties. And because it was a scaled down version of Nieuport 10, it earned the affectionate nickname Bebe (French for kid). It was used for the first time on January 5, 1916, and in February there were 90 of them at the front. In fact, it was thanks to him that the "Fokker E whip" was broken, even though these planes did not have synchronizers yet. This problem was solved quite simply: the rifle was placed on the top panel so that it would shoot over the propeller circle. It was terribly inconvenient for the pilot, as the Lewis rifle with which the Nieuport 11 was equipped had only 47 rounds (later 96 rounds) in the magazine. The only way to replace it was to get up in the cabin and, holding the shuttlecock with your feet, change the ammunition drum. Later, the rifles began to be mounted on a "Foster rail", which allowed them to be pulled into the cabin. This idea was eagerly used by the British ace Albert Ball. It flew to the enemy plane from below and, while directing the rifle almost vertically upwards, by means of a rail, he fired the burst into the enemy's defenseless belly, being completely covered by him. In the second half of 1916, a more powerful, 110 HP Le Rhone engine was installed on the Nieuport 11. This version was designated as Nieuport 16. This model did not differ from the Nieuport 11. Due to the greater weight of the engine, the Nieuport 16 lost some of its flight properties. Therefore, it was decided to increase the supporting surface a bit to improve the situation. Technical data (Nieuport 11 version): length: 5.8 m, wingspan: 7.55 m, height: 2.4 m, maximum speed: 156 km / h, climb speed: 3.3 m / s, maximum range: 330 km, maximum ceiling 4600m, armament: fixed - 1 Lewis or Hotchkiss machine gun.