Nieuport 24

The Nieuport 24 was a French biplane fighter aircraft during World War I designed by Gustave Delage as a replacement for the successful Nieuport 17. In the event its performance was little better than the type it was meant to replace, which was largely superseded by the SPAD S.7 instead. Operational Nieuport 24s served with French, British and Russian units, and the type also served widely as an advanced trainer.

Design and development
The Nieuport 24 introduced a new fuselage of improved aerodynamic form, rounded wingtips, and a tail unit incorporating a small fixed fin and a curved rudder. The tailskid was sprung internally and had a neater appearance than that on earlier Nieuports. A 130 hp Le Rhône rotary engine was fitted.

There were initial structural problems with the new tail, and most production aircraft of the type were of the Nieuport 24bis model, which retained the fuselage and wings of the 24, but reverted to the Nieuport 17 type tailplane, tailskid and rectangular balanced rudder. The new tail was finally standardised on the Nieuport 27.

A batch of Nieuport 24bis were built in England for the Royal Naval Air Service.

The standard armament of the Nieuport 17 (a synchronised Vickers in French service - a Lewis gun on a Foster mounting on the top wing in British service) was retained to save weight and retain a good performance, although many 24s were used as advanced trainers and normally flown without guns.

Service history
In the summer of 1917, when the Nieuport 24 and 24bis. were coming off the production line, most French fighter squadrons were replacing their Nieuport 17s with SPAD S.VIIs – and many of the new fighters went to fighter training schools, and to France’s allies, including the Russians, and the British, who used theirs well into 1918, due to a shortage of S.E.5as. A few French units retained the Nieuport through late 1917 – the type was actually preferred by some pilots, especially the famous Charles Nungesser.

Some of the large number of Nieuport advanced trainers bought by the Americans for their flying schools in France in November 1917 were 24s or 24bis.

Operators

 * 🇦🇫 Afghanistan
 * Afghan Air Force - A single Nieuport 24 fighter was donated by the Soviet Union in September 1921, as part of the initial equipment of the Afghan Air Force, along with a Farman HF.4 and a Sopwith 1½ Strutter. It still existed in December 1924.


 * Service Aéronautique
 * Service Aéronautique


 * Estonian Air Force - Postwar.
 * Estonian Air Force - Postwar.


 * 🇬🇷 Greece
 * Hellenic Air Force


 * 🇱🇻 Latvia
 * Latvian Air Force - Postwar.


 * Imperial Japanese Army Air Force - built by Nakajima Aircraft Company
 * Imperial Japanese Army Air Force - built by Nakajima Aircraft Company


 * Polish Air Force - ex-Russian aircraft
 * Polish Air Force - ex-Russian aircraft


 * Royal Romanian Air Force
 * Royal Romanian Air Force


 * Imperial Russian Air Service - some built in Russia
 * Imperial Russian Air Service - some built in Russia


 * Serbian Air Force
 * Serbian Air Force


 * 🇹🇭 Siam
 * Royal Siamese Air Service


 * Turkish Air Force
 * Turkish Air Force


 * Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force
 * No. 1 Squadron RFC
 * No. 29 Squadron RFC
 * No. 40 Squadron RFC
 * No. 111 Squadron RFC
 * No. 113 Squadron RFC
 * No. 113 Squadron RFC


 * Workers' and Peasants' Red Air Fleet
 * Workers' and Peasants' Red Air Fleet


 * American Expeditionary Force
 * United States Army Air Service
 * United States Army Air Service


 * Kingdom of Yugoslavia
 * Yugoslav Royal Air Force - Postwar