Nieuport 17

Nieuport 17
Role	Fighter
Manufacturer	Nieuport
First flight	January 1916
Introduction	March 1916
Status	retired
Primary users	Aéronautique Militaire Imperial Russian Air Service Royal Flying Corps
Developed from	Nieuport 11/16

The Nieuport 17 C.1 was a World War I French sesquiplanefighter designed by the Nieuport company. Its outstanding maneuverability and excellent rate of climb gave it a significant advantage when it entered service over all other fighters on both sides and as a result was widely used and enjoyed substantial production runs in France, Italy (Nieuport-Macchi) and Russia (Dux), eventually being used by every Allied power, and even being copied in Germany.

The Nieuport 17 was a slightly larger development of the earlier Nieuport 11, trimmed for the heavier powerplant used by the Nieuport 16 and with a larger wings and improved aerodynamic form. It was at first fitted with a 110 hp (82 kW) Le Rhône 9J engine, though later examples used uprated 120 or 130 hp (97 kW) engines.

Production of the new Alkan-Hamy synchronization gear permitted the wing mounted Lewis gun of the "11" to be replaced with a synchronised Vickers gun mounted on the fuselage to fire through the propeller. The standard Royal Flying Corps synchroniser, the Vickers-Challenger gear, was unreliable, and in British service the over-wing Lewis gun was retained, mostly on the new Foster mounting, a curved metal rail which allowed the pilot to slide the gun back to change drums or clear jams. Some aircraft, particularly French, were fitted with both guns but a single machine gun was most common.

The Nieuport 21 differed in primarily using the lower powered 80 hp Le Rhône 9C and was intended as a fighter trainer or high altitude bomber escort, however it was used alongside the Nieuport 17 in the normal fighter roles in French and Russian service.

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