Wings of The Great War WW19001
Nieuport Nieuport 17 Display Model
Service Aeronautique EC 65, Charles Nungesser, France, 1918 | |
| 1:72 Scale | | Length | | Width |
|---|
| Nieuport Nieuport 17 | | 3.25" | | 4.5" |
Charles Nungesser was a French ace pilot and adventurer, best remembered as a rival of Charles Lindbergh. When World War I broke out, he enlisted with the 2e Regiment de Hussards. During one patrol, he and several soldiers commandeered a German Mors patrol car after killing its occupants. This impressed his superiors, and he was subsequently awarded the Medaille militaire and granted his request to be transferred to the Service Aeronautique. In November 1915 he was transferred to Escadrille N.65 (the 65th Squadron) and was later attached to the famous Lafayette Escadrille, composed of American volunteers. While visiting the Escadrille on one of his convalescent periods recuperating from his wounds, he borrowed a plane and shot down another German while he was there. By the end of 1916, he had claimed 21 air kills, rating third highest in the country for air combat victories during World War I. After the war, Nungesser mysteriously disappeared on an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York.
Designed as an improvement upon the Nieuport 11, the Model 17 was first flown in January 1916. This French-built fighter was more powerful and more refined than the Nieuport 11, and its rate of climb and maneuverability were superior for its time. The Nieuport 17 had a wide top wing and a narrower lower wing, which made it more of a "sesquiplane" than a biplane ("one and a half wings"). Its single-spar construction meant that the lower wing was weak and prone to disintegrating in flight-but this weakness didn't stop the Nieuport 17 from going on to become one of the most successful fighters of WWI. © Copyright 2003-2024 The Flying Mule, Inc.
The Wings of The Great War range presents affordable, ready-made resin models of WWI aircraft. Each model is crafted and painted by hand and features a unique pivoting stand that allows the model to be displayed at a variety of different attitudes.
Wings of The Great War display airplanes feature:
- Molded resin construction with no assembly required.
- Fixed, non-rotating propellers and wheels.
- Poseable presention stand to display the aircraft "in flight".
Why Resin?
It's very expensive to produce die-casting molds, and manufacturers must sell a large number of models from each mold in order to recoup development costs. Some subjects are so obscure that it's difficult to sell large quantities of them. Resin-casting is a much simpler and less expensive process, and manufacturers can use it to make limited runs of models that can't be cost effectively manufactured in diecast metal. With resin-cast models, collectors can add fascinating and unusual subjects to their collections without the time and difficulty of assembling and painting a model kit.
© Copyright 2003-2024 The Flying Mule, Inc.
