The Aviation Magazine Volume 7 issue 4 #43 June Special Edition | Page 34
SDASM Archives
The airmen of La Fayette Escadrille flew the French‐made Nieuport and SPAD biplanes during WWI. The
Nieuport models included: 11, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 24bis, and SPAD models: VII and XIII. Initially the Nie‐
uport 11 were used by the first wave of volunteers however, the SPAD VIIs became the main aircraft flown
by the majority as the escadrille expanded. The paint and camouflage patterns were often personalized
by the pilots, and most of the aircraft also featured either Seminole Indian or the more fierce looking Sioux
warrior head on both sides of the fuselage.
French Escadrilles first received the Nieuport 11 during the summer of 1915, and it helped to win tempo‐
rary air superiority for the Allies over the Fokker Monoplane flown by the Germans at that time. Toward
the end of 1916, the Nieuport 11 began to be replaced by the higher‐powered, better armed Nieuport 17
in response to the introduction by Germany of higher performance aircraft.
SD ASM Archives
Photos of WWI airmen can be found at the archives of the San Diego Air and Space Museum as well as U.S
Air Force’s website without any copyrights.
SDASM Archives
The design of the Nieuport 11 was basically a smaller, neater version of the Nieuport 10. Like the “10” the
“11” was a sesquiplane, a biplane with a full‐sized top wing with two spars and a lower wing of much nar‐
rower chord and just one spar. It was called “Bébé” (Baby) because of its small size. The armament on the
Nieuport 11 was a Lewis gun, mounted above the center section of the wing to fire above the propeller
arc. The little Nieuport quickly became popular with Allied flyers for it had a good rate of climb and was
very maneuverable. The powerplant was the 80 horsepower Le Rhone rotary engine, installed in a horse‐
shoe‐shaped cowling.