Nieuport 27

The Nieuport 27 (or Nieuport XXVII C.1 in contemporary sources) was a World War I French sesquiplane fighter aircraft designed by Gustave Delage. The 27 was the last of the line of Nieuport "V-strut" single seat fighters that began with the Nieuport 10 of 1914. Operational examples supplemented the very similar Nieuport 24 and 24bis in operational squadrons in late 1917 and many would also be used as advanced trainers. The Nieuport 27's design closely followed that of the 24, sharing the same faired fuselage, rounded ailerons and half-heart shaped rudder. The only externally visible changes from the 24 included the replacement of the fixed external wood Nieuport type sprung tailskid with an internally pivoted type, and the replacement of the single undercarriage axle that connected both wheels, with one that had a hinge along the centerline – and one extra wire. By 1918, many Nieuport fighters were being used as advanced trainers, and the Le Rhône 9JB Rotary engine was often replaced by lower powered engines, such as the Le Rhône 9C. Operational Nieuport 27s in Italian and French service were armed with a synchronized, fuselage-mounted Vickers machine gun occasionally supplemented with an overwing Lewis Gun mounted on one of several mountings. In British service with the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force a Lewis Gun was mounted on a Foster mounting above the top wing. Nieuport produced a number of prototypes either contemporary to, or based on the Nieuport 27, including one with a Hispano-Suiza 8 V-8 inline engine that may have been designated the Nieuport 26, another with an enlarged 2 spar lower wing and a third with a redesigned front fuselage with a further simplified cabane structure, and a Vickers mounted on the forward port longeron. Development of the Nieuport 28, with ailerons moved to the two spar lower wing, rounded wingtips and a simplified fuselage structure, concluded further development of the 27 line.