The upper wing had a normal two-spar structure, but the lower wing only had one, an arrangement called a \u201csesquiplane\u201d or \u201cone and a half plane.\u201d The design was originally intended to keep the lower drag of a monoplane but have the structural strength of a biplane. While the smaller lower wing did improve the pilot\u2019s downward visibility, it unfortunately would sometimes fail in flight due to the structure twisting under high loads.<\/p>\n
Powered by the 110 hp Le Rh\u00f4ne rotary engine, the aircraft was agile and fast climbing. It reached the war front by March 1916 and was flown by French, British, Italian, and Belgian squadrons. American volunteers\u2014flying for France before America entered the war\u2014flew these as well in the famous Lafayette Escadrille. Initially the Nieuport 17 had a Lewis machine gun mounted on the top wing that would fire outside the propeller arc. This was mainly responsible for ending the \u201cFokker Scourge\u201d era brought on by the German development of a method to fire a machine gun through the propeller. Only one original type 17 survives today.<\/p>\n
During the war, the Germans captured a Nieuport 17. Impressed with its performance, they designed and constructed a German copy. This aircraft is a reproduction built from those German Rosendaal drawings as no French drawings exist. It was constructed by Larry Curry of Tacoma, WA, in 1971. It had only 12 hours of flying on it when Kermit purchased the plane in 1989. This aircraft was used in the making of the 2006 film Flyboys.<\/p>\n