The Nieuport 10 was a useful fighter but clearly no more than a stop gap. Something better was needed if the French air service were to find the measure of the Fokker monoplane and it came in the pleasing form of the Nieuport 11 BB.Officialy the Nieuport 11 C1 and unofficialy the baby Nieuport or "BeBe", the type 11 again owed its origins to a pre-war racing monoplane. Functional in outline but with an elegance unmistakably French the Nieuport 11 was in many respects the first modern lightweight fighter Despite retaining its predecessors outmoded overwing Lewis gun as armament, in January 1916 it allowed the hard pressed French air service to meet the Fokker monoplane on far better than equal terms.
In its admittedly short heyday the baby Nieuport feared no adversary.Commissioned sous-lieutenant on March 4th 1916 and introduced to the baby Nieuport at about the same time, Guynemer's use of it was brief but to the point. Downing a LVG for his eighth victory on March 12th, the following day was wounded and would not return to combat duty for six weeks With the single honourable exception of Charles Nungesser, Georges Guynemer seems to have stopped more bullets (with his aircraft if not his person) than any other notable ace on either side. Returning to the front at the end of April he did not score again on the BeBe and put it aside for the more powerful Nieuport type 17 C1 early in May.
Displayed with spurious markings and inaccurate serial number the Musee de l'Air Nieuport 11 still amply demonstrates the types pleasing lines. Expertly restored in 1986 it now hangs in Le Bourget's truely breathtaking Grande Gallerie in the company of far too many World War One classics to list.
As with his Nieuport 10 Guynemers aircraft is in the typical finish of the period. Fabric areas are clear doped and the plywood forward fuselage also covered in stretched and doped linen. National cockades are marked in the by now usual Nieuport style under both sets of wings and above the upper wing, and the aircraft serial number appears on the rudder striping in black . Despite his limited use of it Guynemer still found time to have the aeroplane marked "LE VIEUX CHARLES" in formal style on the fuselage sides. Entering service with N3 at the time Escadrille markings were being introduced it is unlikely that Guynemers Nieuport 11 was effected. Its career was short and the transition to the type 17 already under way.
Nieuport 11 Span 7.52m Length 5.50m Wing Area 13.3 sq m Armament 1 x 303 cal Lewis Engine 80hp le Rhone 9c Performance Max Speed 162kph Climb 2000m
in 8.50 min
Pictured with his 'baby' Nieuport Guynemer was wounded less than twenty four hours later.
Nieuport 10
SPADs Nieuport 17Please make another selection
