WWI Plane Set Question

[Treize69]

He did have a SPAD, but he wasn't as fond of it as he was the Nieuport. He was a man who preferred maneuverability over speed.

[Shuffler]

Quite a few pilots of all sides were killed simply by structural failures. Remember no chutes back in those days.

[Anaxogoras]

IIRC it was pretty heavily modified.  The N.17 was Ball's favourite and personal aircraft too, AFAIK he would go out lonesharking in it while assigned to 56 in the SE.

<Edit> Almost forgot, Nungesser spent a long, long time in and out of hospital towards the end of the war, i don't know a huge amount about him, but i don't think he did much flying in the last year or so of the war.  I could be wrong.

He had at least one injury that broke both of his legs, and he is reported to have needed help getting in an out of the cockpit afterward.

If RoF is any way to judge, the roll-rate of the N17 would have been a big liability by 1917.

Quite a few pilots of all sides were killed simply by structural failures. Remember no chutes back in those days.

Balloon observers were equipped with chutes, and the German air force used them in 1918.

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Nice find treize!

[Furball]

He had at least one injury that broke both of his legs, and he is reported to have needed help getting in an out of the cockpit afterward.

Found an article about him in a book i have: -

In January 1916 Nungesser was the victim of a serious accident while testing a new aeroplane.  The joystick went through his mouth, dislocating his jaw and perforating his palate; in addition both of his legs were broken.  Yet within two months he was flying again, although he could only move to and from his aircraft on crutches.  Throughout April, Nungesser had to return to hospital for periodic treatment of his injuries.  But while he was flying, fresh wounds accumulated.  His lip was slashed by an explosive bullet; his jaw was again broken when he inverted a damaged aircraft making a forced landing; and in another crash in no man's land, he dislocated his knee.  In December he had to return to hospital to have all of his fractures broken and reset, and was forced to take a two month rest.

Nungesser's return, in a period when Allied opposition was frail, and sometimes timid, was immediately noticed by the Germans.  On 12 May a lone Albatros dropped a message challenging Nungesser to single combat that afternoon over Douai.  Yet when he arrived at the appointed rendezvous, Nungesser found not one, but six of the enemy were waiting for him.  But still he could not be killed; in the dog-fight that followed this betrayal, Nungesser shot down two of his enemy (Paul Schweizer and Ernst Bittorf) and the rest scattered.

His health continued to deteriorate.  Now two mechanics had to carry Nungesser into his cockpit for he could no longer manage even with his crutches.  Throughout August he flew and fought, but his strength was épuisé.  Unlike Guynemer who was also on the threshold of nervous collapse, Nungesser allowed himself to be sent back to Paris on sick leave.  On his flight home he was set on by a solitary Halberstadt.  For over half an hour the two planes fought single-handed.  Perhaps it was Nungesser's poor health, perhaps it was the exceptional skill of his opponent, but neither could gain the advantage.  Finally, his fuel almost exhausted, Nungesser landed at Le Tourquet airfield and was surprised to see his adversary land and also taxi towards him.  When the two were side by side, the German waved gleefully and took off again.  Curiously, this sporting gesture was seen by Nungesser as a terrible humiliation and he was to spend hundreds of hours of his future flying life searching for that same Halberstadt so that he could retrieve his honour.

That Winter, Nungesser skidded his Mors touring car on the icy road while driving back from Paris in the middle of the night.  The car overturned and Nungesser was thrown out, once again breaking his jaw as well as suffering other injuries.  But his faithful mechanic, Soldat Pochon, who was responsible for all of Nungesser's aircraft, was trapped in the car and killed.  Nungesser went back to hospital and for the remainder of the war his flying periods were punctuated by long spells in the care of doctors.

[Simba]

"Mannock seems to have been a very complicated man.  I'd like to read more about him than the short article at wikipedia."

Two good books on Mannock for you, Anaxogoras:

King of Air Fighters by Flight Lieutenant Ira 'Taffy' Jones, D.S.O., M.C., D.F.C., M.M.; 1934, Ivor Nicholson & Watson Ltd, London. Jones was a colourful character who flew with Mannock; his book was the first biography of Mannock to be published. It's a product of its times and some of the details are doubtful, but it captures the ' period atmosphere' of RFC/RAF service very well.

'Mick' - The Story Of Major Edward Mannock, V.C, D.S.O, M.C., R.F.C., R.A.F. by James M. Dudgeon; 1981, Robert Hale Ltd, London, ISBN 0 7090 5169 7. First paperback edition published 1993. This is a very good biography of Mannock, and his motivation and mental state is described in some depth.

      

[zarkov]

Sure, but the N17 was obsolescent by the end of the war.  Surely he wasn't still flying it in 1918?

He wasn't still flying a N17 in 1918; he was flying the later models like the Nieuport 17bis, Nieuport 25, etc.; he switched to a SPAD in August 1918.  Even when he was posted to SPAD squadrons, he continued to fly a Nieuport up until he made his switch; he was given a roving commission where he basically flew with a squadron as a "guest" until he moved on to the next squadron.

I suspect he flew the Nieuport because he liked its maneuverability.  He wasn't unique in this.  Even when certain squadrons switched to the SPAD, some pilots were permitted, in some cases (like in N. 124), to continue flying Nieuports.  Of course, not all squadrons were like this; you flew what you were given in most cases.

The RFC liked the Nieuports a lot and some squadrons continued to soldier on with them (armed with a single Lewis gun in a Foster mount) into 1918 until they were finally replaced with SE5a's.