The Nieuport Aircraft Encyclopedia Part 1: 1910-1914
By Matt Bittner
Authors: Michel Bénichou & David Méchin
Publisher: Aeronaut Books
ISBN: 978-1-964637-13-6
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 206
As a fan of the aircraft company, it was great hearing about the upcoming Encyclopedias on everything Nieuport. When their sesquiplanes started appearing en mass they pushed the favor in the air to the French. Of course everything has to start somewhere, and the first aircraft built by Nieuports were mostly monoplanes. The book is broken out thusly:
- Forward
- Introduction: The History of the Nieuport company
- Chapter 1: The Nieuport "Spider"
- Chapter 2: The Nieuport II
- Chapter 3: The Nieuport III
- Chapter 4: The Nieuport IV
- Chapter 5: Prototypes with reduced dimensions
- Chapter 6: The Nieuport VI H
- Chapter 7: The Nieuport VII
- Chapter 8: The Nieuport-Dunne
- Chapter 9: The Astra-Nieuport seaplane
- Chapter 10: The Nieuport X (10,000)
- Chapter 11: The Nieuport XI (11,000)
- Chapter 12: The armoured Nieuport and Nieuport Destroyer
- Chapter 13: The Nieuport XIII (13,000)
- Period Plans
- Data Tables
The creator of the company - Eduardo Nieuport - had just enough time to see his creations grace the air before he perished in a crash on one of his own aircraft. His brother took over, and suffered the same fate, and finally Gustave Delage took over after that, working may years for the company.
There are 330 photos contained in this book with 38 color profiles that will ignite the imagination of any modeler. Unfortunately the types aren't well covered as models: in 1/48 there was a resin IV M from Copper State Models when it was still in Arizona, USA; and another resin IV G from Planet Models. In 1/72 there are/were models from Amodel in injected plastic as "just" a IV; a crude injected plastic "IV" from a Russian manufacturer called "Sentis"; and a "Nieuport Monoplane 1912 (Nieuport IV G)" from Scaleplanes in vaccuum-formed plastic.
Unfortunately my book suffers greatly with the placement of the text; sections for a specific aircraft type, although having their own chapter, flow from one type to the next. However, the publisher has told me he has fixed this in all future printings. Another unfortunate error is the scale drawing for the Nieuport IV G. According to text on the drawing itself: "The wing of the Nieuport IV G is supposed to have 14 ribs, not 15 as shown in the plan. If it is a Nieuport IV M, 16 ribs." I do not know why this wasn't corrected before publication nor if there are plans to correct it for subsequent printings. The other drawing drafted specifically for this book - for the Nieuport VI H - does not seem to suffer from any error. Note that there are also period plans included.
Even with the Nieuport IV G drawing error, this is still a book worth acquiring, especially if you're an aficionado of Nieuport, or early aviation in general.
I definitely thank Aeronaut Books for sending this book to review. Contact them direct for ordering information.