World War I American aviators and pilots

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Nieuport 28

Nieuport 28 in 94th Aero Squadron livery

The Nieuport 28 was America's first fighter airplane.

The US Army Air Service had already had some experience flying around searching for Pancho Villa, as part of the 1916 punitive expedition led into Mexico by John J. Pershing. There had even been an idea to hold a large machine gun into the air to use it for air to ground attacks.

At the start of American involvement in World War I, American industry had promised that it would produce 45,000 or so fighters; unlike the astounding production numbers of World War II, not a single one was delivered in time to fight the war. So there were no American combat aircraft at the beginning of the war and there were too few Spads to go around, thus the Americans ordered 297 Nieuport 28s.

Nieuport 28

And so the brave American pilots of the 27th, 94th, 97th and 103rd Aero Squadrons all flew the French Nieuport 28 biplane to start with. This was a light 1,200 pound fighter 24 feet long with a 26 foot wingspan capable of 122 miles per hour. The 28 was derived from earlier Nieuport 17 and its descendants.

The aircraft was equipped with a nine cylinder air cooled engine developing 160 horsepower. The service ceiling was 17,390 feet, but Eddie Rickenbacker speaks of viewing the world from 15,000 feet. The Nieuport 28 was armed with two twin synchronized .303 Vickers machine guns.

Nieuport 28

These numbers seem feeble, especially considering that today's typical four door sedan has significantly more horsepower, more weight and in some cases similar top end speeds. But back then, these aircraft were the leading edge of technology - nearly as impressive in those days as today's stealth combat fighters are to us.

The 94th and 95th received their Nieuports and made them operational in mid-March, 1918, but without any machine guns, which would arrive a few weeks later. In the mean time, the Americans familiarized themselves with their new planes.

By mid-April, the guns had arrived, were installed and the units were considered fully operational.

Still, even then the Nieuport 28 was considered an inferior design by the French as it reached production. Designs and combat aircraft technology was evolving very rapidly obsoleting front line aircraft in a year or even in months. The Nieuport had already been superseded and so the French ordered the legendary Spad XIII instead.

The Nieuport, which, according to a number of sources which all use the same words without much further elaboration, had a "tendency to shed its wings" while flying. The earlier marks of Nieuports would sometimes shed their wings too.

However, according to www.acepilots.com, only four of the 298 Nieuports used by the US had fabric stripped from their wings in a dive, etc., and none of them appears to have caused any fatalities. Two of the incidents were for the same pilot, so perhaps it might have been something specific he was doing in pushing the aircraft beyond its design limits. Here is what actually happened:

" 2 May 1918

* 94th - Lieutenants Meissner, Winslow and Davis attacked a formation of three enemy bi-place machines north of Pont-a-Mousson. After a short fight Lieutenant Meissner brought one machine down in flames near the Foret de la Rappe. The fabric of the leading edge and on the lower wings was torn loose during the combat and he was subjected to heavy anti-aircraft fire from German batteries but by skillful operation and cool determination he managed to coax the crippled airplane across the American lines." "Captain Hall while following a Fokker in a dive lost the fabric on his wings and his plane was hit by a dud anti-aircraft shell and felt into a spin. On making a crash landing in German territory he suffered a broken ankle and was taken prisoner. "

Rickenbacker actually had a structural wing problem:

" 17 May 1918

* 94th - Lieutenant Edward Rickenbacker engaged three enemy Albatros scouts near Richecourt and succeeded in destroying one. The other two dove for their side of the lines and in diving after them the wing on Lieutenant Rickenbacker's type XXVIII Nieuport snapped. By good luck he managed to nurse the crippled Nieuport back to the airdrome without being sighted by a single enemy airplane "

The United States had 298 of these Nieuport 28s and operated them for several months in combat. It thus appears that the oft stated information of Nieuport 28s having a tendency to lose their wings has been overemphasized.

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"American Eagles - The Illustrated History of American Aviation in World War I" ($19.95, paperback, 400 pages, 8.5"x11", black and white, $5 for shipping and handling (US) or free download):

American Eagles is packed with 220 photos, new maps and beautiful artwork by Michael O'Neal. It is the story of American World War I combat aviation, the aviators, their planes, their aerodromes, their stories and what happened to them after the war. Read about the first American fighters, bombers and observation planes, the Lafayette Escadrille, United States Naval Aviation, United States Marine Aviation, the United States Air Service, now the USAF, and more.

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The Lafayette Escadrille is about the brave Americans who volunteered to fly for France and the United States 103rd Aero Squadron during World War I. Read about Raoul Lufbery, Bill Thaw, Kiffin Rockwell, Norman Prince, Charles Biddle and the early days of American World War I military aviation before it was known as the United States Air Force. These men flew Nieuports and Spads against Fokkers and Albatroses. This book has lots of new research and is thoroughly well-documented. 204 pages, 62 photos and maps.

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