AUGUST 30, 1917.

SOME NIEUPORT "MILESTONES." >

DURING the war it has naturally been impossible for obvious national reasons for us to keep our readers as well
informed regarding aeronautical progress at home and among our Allies as we should have desired. In order
to be quite sure that no information that might be of value to the enemy should be published we have
practically refrained from giving particulars of modern military aeroplanes used by the Allies. That large
numbers of machines have fallen into the hands of the enemy there is ample evidence to prove, and that out of
these a sufficient quantity of details have remained intact for him to reconstruct, a course which he has
evidently followed in connection with the Nieuport i f plane—as the German papers term it. Articles have
recently appeared in Zeitschrift fur Flugtechnik und Motorluftschiffahrt and Flugsfiort dealing with this
machine, and we reproduce them in extenso not only because they illustrate one of the most successful and
popular French machines but furthermore, they are of great interest in stating the German point of view and
the German opinion of one of the leading makes of aeroplanes of our French Allies. That the enemy appreciation
of the Nieuport is in the main favourable transpires from the articles, and is further confirmed by the fact that
in the latest Albatros single-seaters the chief characteristic of the Nieuport—the i f plane arrangement and
the Vee struts—has been embodied. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the Nieuport firm may
well congratulate themselves on having been copied by the slow-moving German designer. Below are the
translations from our German contemporaries.
I. the biplane (stability and short span).* At the present day
(From the ZeUschrift fur Flugtechmk und Motorluftschiffahrt.) ^ ^ ^ * " ^ m a c h i n e m o s t e x t e n s i v e l v employed
An intermediate step in the transformation from the A great number of single-seater Nieuports, and also some
monoplane £0 the biplane type of aeroplane, which latter is by two-seaters, have been captured. These machines are not
far the most employed at the present day, is formed by the uniformly built, however, and it appears that the Nieuport

Nieuport
lj-plane,
Type 12.

biplane with a larger top plane and a smaller bottom plane.
This type is produced by the Nieuport firm, and it is said
that already in 1910 the Swiss aeroplane designer Schneider,
who was then connected with the Nieuport works, urged the
construction of a i£ plane, in order to combine the advantages
of the monoplane (speed and ease of handling) with those of
machines are built by several firms, some of which carry out
the detail construction differently. This is a great drawback
from the point of view of upkeep and repair of the machines
• In this connection it might be pointed out that Schneider, who is now the
designer of the German L.V.G. biplanes, is reported to have taken with him
several Nieuport drawings and calculations.—ED.

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The body of
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the Nieuport
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~: -lj-plane. .-;

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