The Nieuport 12 (or Nieuport XII in contemporary sources) was a French

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

reconnaissance,

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

and trainer used by

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Later production examples were built as trainers and served widely until the late 1920s.

Design and development

To improve the performance of the

Nieuport 10 The Nieuport 10 (or Nieuport XB in contemporary sources) was a French First World War sesquiplane that filled a wide variety of roles, including reconnaissance, fighter and trainer. Design and development In January 1914, designer Gustave Delag ...

a re-engined version was developed as the Nieuport 12 with a significantly enlarged upper wing. A Lewis gun was fitted to the rear cockpit for use by the observer, normally on an Etévé ring (known as the Nieuport ring in British service) although early examples used a pedestal mount or half ring. A second Lewis was sometimes fitted to fire over the top wing. Nieuport 12s built by

Beardmore Beardmore can refer to: *Andrew Beardmore, better known as Andy Moor, English trance DJ, producer and remixer *Bob Beardmore, British rugby league footballer *Bud Beardmore (1939–2016), American lacrosse coach *Jim Beardmore, Former All-American ...

used by the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

were sometimes fitted with a

Scarff ring The Scarff ring was a type of machine gun mounting developed during the First World War by Warrant Officer (Gunner) F. W. Scarff of the Admiralty Air Department for use on two-seater aircraft. The mount incorporated bungee cord suspension in eleva ...

instead of the Nieuport ring, and a synchronized

Vickers gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and o ...

for the pilot. Additional modifications were made to those built by Beardmore. It could be fitted with either a Clerget,

Clerget 9B The Clerget 9B was a nine-cylinder rotary aircraft engine of the World War I era designed by Pierre Clerget. Manufactured in both France and Great Britain (Gwynnes Limited), it was used on such aircraft as the Sopwith Camel. The Clerget 9Bf was ...

engine or

Le Rhône 9J The Le Rhône 9J is a nine-cylinder rotary aircraft engine produced in France by Gnome et Rhône. Also known as the Le Rhône 110 hp in a reference to its nominal power rating, the engine was fitted to a number of military aircraf ...

mounted in the nose.

Variants

French Nieuport 12bis of Escadrille N69 at the Somme (cropped)

;Nieuport 12 A.2 :Two-seat fighter-reconnaissance biplane, powered by

Clerget 9Z Clerget-Blin (full name being ''Société Clerget-Blin et Cie'') was a French precision engineering company formed in 1913 by the engineer and inventor Pierre Clerget and industrialist Eugène Blin. In 1939, the company was absorbed into the ''Gr ...

engine.Bruce 1982, p.320. or

. ;Nieuport 12bis C.2 :Revised version with

engine and streamlined side fairings.Bruce 1982, p.323. ;Nieuport 13 :Two prototypes with increased span but same nominal wing area as 12. One powered by a

Hispano-Suiza 8 The Hispano-Suiza 8 was a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914, and was the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza ...

, and the other by an

Le Rhône 9C The Le Rhône 9C is a nine-cylinder rotary aircraft engine produced in France by '' Société des Moteurs Le Rhône'' / Gnome et Rhône. Also known as the Le Rhône 80 hp in a reference to its nominal power rating, the engine was ...

. ;Nieuport 20 :Version powered by

. Not used by France, but 21 delivered to Royal Flying Corps.Bruce 1982, pp. 323–324. All but first examples externally similar to 12bis. ;23 meter Nieuport :Unofficial generic designation for all types listed here based on nominal wing area of 23 square meters. ;Nieuport 80 E.2 and 81 E.2 :Nieuport 12s were later built in large numbers specifically as training aircraft with the gun ring removed. 8 in designation referred to

. These differed in having flight controls for just the pilot in the rear seat (81 E.2), or both pilot and passenger (80 E.2). ;Nieuport 12 (Beardmore) :Beardmore progressively redesigned the Nieuport 12 during a production run of 50 aircraft so early examples were almost stock but late production examples differed considerably in detail. These were fitted with

and

rotaries. ;Mitsubishi Army Type 甲 1 (Ko 1) Trainer :Japanese designation for licence built Nieuport 81 E.2s. 57 built.Mikesh and Abe 1990, p. 176. ;Trainer Type 1 :Siamese designation for Nieuport 80 E.2. ;Sipowicz 1 :Polish experimental aircraft using lifting struts similar to the

Wright-Bellanca WB-2 The sole Wright-Bellanca WB-2, named ''Columbia'', ''Miss Columbia'', and later ''Maple Leaf'', was the second in a series of aircraft designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, initially for Wright Aeronautical then later Columbia Aircraft Corp. De ...

Operators

; *

Argentine Naval Aviation ) Gulf War , anniversaries = , decorations = , battle_honours = , commander1 = President , commander1_label = Commander-in-Chief , commander2 ...

– One aircraft in 1919 ; *

Belgian Air Force The Belgian Air Component ( nl, Luchtcomponent, french: Composante air) is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces, and until January 2002 it was officially known as the Belgian Air Force ( nl, Belgische Luchtmacht; french: Force aérienne belg ...

; *

Chilean Air Force "With full speed to the stars" , colours = Indigo White , colours_label = , march = Alte Kameraden , mascot = , anniversaries = 21 March ...

– One aircraft only. ; * ''Aéronautique Militaire'' ; *

Estonian Air Force The Estonian Air Force ( et, Õhuvägi, ) is the aviation branch of the Estonian Defence Forces. The air force traces its history to 1918, and was re-established in its current form in 1991. As of 2016, the Estonian Air Force has a strength of ...

– Postwar. ; *

Royal Hellenic Navy The Hellenic Navy (HN; el, Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, Polemikó Naftikó, War Navy, abbreviated ΠΝ) is the Navy, naval force of Greece, part of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy historically hails from the naval forces of ...

; *

Imperial Japanese Army Air Service The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...

– received 40 Nieuport 81 E.2 from France in 1919, supplemented with 57 licence-built aircraft. ; *

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...

; *

Portuguese Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 1 July , equipment = , equipment_label ...

; *

Romanian Air Corps The Romanian Air Corps or Aviation Corps (RAC) ( ro, Corpul de Aviație) was the air arm of the Romanian army until the formation of the Romanian Air Force. It was established on 1 April 1913 as the Military Aeronautics Service () and subordinat ...

; *

Imperial Russian Air Service The Imperial Russian Air Service (russian: Императорскій военно-воздушный флотъ, , Emperor's Military Air Fleet) was an air force founded in 1912 for Imperial Russia."''12 августа 1912 года прик� ...

; *

Serbian Air Force The Serbian Air Force and Air Defence ( sr-Cyrl, Ратно ваздухопловство и противваздухопловна одбрана Војске Србије, Ratno vazduhoplovstvo i protivvazduhoplovna odbrana Vojske Srbije, Wa ...

;

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

* Royal Siamese Aeronautical Service – One aircraft only. ; *

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

** No. 45 Squadron RFC ** No. 46 Squadron RFC ** No. 65 Squadron RFC ** No. 84 Squadron RFC *

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

** No. 7 Squadron RNAS ** No. 10 Squadron RNAS ; *

American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...

; : Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet Nieuport 12 NAM Ottawa MDF 8562

Survivor

A single ex-French Nieuport 12 is on display following an extensive restoration (including reinstalling the original

rotary engine) at the

Canada Aviation and Space Museum The Canada Aviation and Space Museum (french: link=no, Musée de l'Aviation et de l'Espace du Canada) (formerly the Canada Aviation Museum and National Aeronautical Collection) is Canada's national aviation history museum. The museum is located ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

in the late 1990s. This aircraft was donated to the Canadian Dominion Archives along with a

Canon de 75 modèle 1897 The French 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze (French ...

cannon and an extensive collection of

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

posters by the French Government in 1916 and was used for

war bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...

drives until the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

resulted in it being placed in storage. In the late 1960s the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

partially converted it into an RFC Beardmore example for display.

Specifications (French-built Nieuport 12 A.2)

Nieuport 12 (Beardmore) colourized drawing

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control 1910s French fighter aircraft Military aircraft of World War I 012 1910s French military trainer aircraft 1910s French military reconnaissance aircraft Sesquiplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1915 Rotary-engined aircraft