The Airdrome Nieuport 17 is an American
amateur-built aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...
, designed and produced by
Airdrome Aeroplanes, of
Holden, Missouri
Holden is a city in western Johnson County, Missouri, Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,252 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census.
History
Holden was laid out in 1857. It was named for Major Nathaniel Holden, a ...
. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction.
[Vandermeullen, Richard: ''2011 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide'', Kitplanes, Volume 28, Number 12, December 2011, page 40. Belvoir Publications. ISSN 0891-1851]
The aircraft is a full-scale replica of the
First World War
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 ...
French
Nieuport 17 fighter. The replica is built from modern materials and powered by modern engines.
Design and development
The Airdrome Nieuport 17 features a "V"-strut
sesquiplane layout, a single-seat open cockpit, fixed
conventional landing gear
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...
and a single engine in
tractor configuration
In aviation, the term tractor configuration refers to an aircraft constructed in the standard configuration with its engine mounted with the propeller in front of it so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. Oppositely, the pusher co ...
.
The aircraft is made from bolted-together
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
tubing, with its flying surfaces covered in
doped aircraft fabric
Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures. The de Havilland Mosquito is an example of this technique, as are ...
. The kit is made up of twelve sub-kits. The Airdrome Nieuport 17 has a wingspan of and a wing area of . The standard engine used is the
four stroke
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directi ...
Volkswagen air-cooled engine
The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders, cast aluminum alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium-alloy crankcase, and forged steel crankshaft and ...
. Building time from the factory-supplied kit is estimated at 400 hours by the manufacturer. The aircraft can be constructed as a Nieuport 17 or as the more refined
Nieuport 17bis
The Nieuport 17bis C.1 (or Nieuport XVIIbis C.1 in contemporary sources) was a World War I French single-seat sesquiplane fighter that was produced under licence in the United Kingdom in small numbers for the Royal Naval Air Service.
Developme ...
.
Operational history
Nine examples had been completed by December 2011.
Specifications (Nieuport 17)
See also
*
Circa Reproductions Nieuport
References
{{Airdrome Aeroplanes
Homebuilt aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Sesquiplanes