Nieuport 24

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Nieuport 24bis.

Charles Nungesser in his Nieuport 24bis.
Type fighter / advanced trainer
Manufacturer Nieuport / British Nieuport and General Aircraft Co.
Designed by Gustave Delage
Maiden flight 1917
Primary users Aéronautique Militaire
Royal Flying Corps
Royal Naval Air Service

The Nieuport 24 was a French biplane fighter aircraft during World War I designed by Gustave Delage as a replacement for the successful Nieuport 17.

Contents

[edit] Design and Development

The Nieuport 24 introduced a new fuselage of improved aerodynamic form, rounded wingtips, and a tail unit incorporating a small fixed fin and a curved rudder. The tailskid was sprung internally and had a neater appearance than that on earlier Nieuports. A 130 hp Le Rhône rotary engine was fitted.

In the event, there were problems with the new tail, and most production aircraft of the type were of the 24bis. model, which retained the fuselage and wings of the 24, but reverted to the Nieuport 17 type tailplane, tailskid and rectangular balanced rudder. The new tail was finally standardised on the Nieuport 27.

A batch of Nieuport 24bis. were built in England for the Royal Naval Air Service.

The standard armament of the Nieuport 17 (a synchronised Vickers in French service - a Lewis gun on a Foster mounting on the top wing in British service) was retained to save weight and retain a good performance, although many 24s were used as advanced trainers and normally flown without guns.

[edit] Service history

In the summer of 1917, when the Nieuport 24 and 24bis. were coming off the production line, most French fighter squadrons were replacing their Nieuport 17s with SPADs – and many of the new fighters went to fighter training schools, and to France’s allies, including the Russians, and the British, who used theirs well into 1918, due to a shortage of S.E.5as. A few French units retained the Nieuport through late 1917 – the type was actually preferred by some pilots, especially the famous Charles Nungesser.

Some of the Nieuport advanced trainers bought by the Americans for their flying schools in France in November 1917 may very well have been 24s or 24bis.

[edit] Operators

[edit] Specifications (Nieuport 24bis.)

General characteristics

  • Crew: One
  • Length: 5.88 m (19 ft 3½ in)
  • Wingspan: 8.18 m (26 ft 10 in)
  • Height: 2.44 m (8 ft)
  • Empty weight: 354 kg (782 lb)
  • Loaded weight: 544 kg (1,200 lb)

Performance

Armament

[edit] Notes and references

  • Nieuport Fighters in Action published by Squadron/Signal Publications
  • Cheesman E.F. (ed.) Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War Letchworth, Harletford Publications, 1960 pp. 96-97

[edit] See also

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