Newport Aircraft - An upgraded version of the Nieuport 17, the Nieuport 28 entered combat service in June 1917 and served alongside the SPAD over the trenches of the Western Front. Despite its increased maneuverability, the Nieuport 28 retained the same problems as its predecessor in that the wing surfaces tended to shed in prolonged power dives and the airplane was very unforgiving of pilot error.
Thus, the French Flying Service operated only a limited number of them. American pilots of the Allied Expeditionary Force employed the aircraft with great skill, however, with leading ace Eddie Rickenbacker scoring many of his 26 kills in the aircraft.
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Despite these early successes, the wing fabric problems remained and the Americans eventually followed their French counterparts in obtaining the sturdier SPAD fighters. The 11 can be built with lightweight TUFF wheels and a Rotax 447 in the US Ultralight category.
As a registered homebuilt, (or UL in Canada) it can be built in a range of variants including the Ni 17/24/27 and Siemens Shuckert D1. With the Nieuport 28 completed and test flown by Mikael in Sweden, it was put on a ship to Massachusetts.
The aircraft was reassembled at the American Heritage Museum in time for our WWI Aviation weekend in September 2022. In honor of our WWI aviators and veterans, the aircraft is now on display at the American Heritage Museum.
This Nieuport emerged from a factory near Paris, France late in 1918. Following WWI, the American government imported about fifty Nieuport 28s, including our N.28, to fill out the ranks of the newly established U.S. Army Air Service.
After retirement from Army use, N.28 gained a new lease on life in civilian hands, being featured in a number of significant aviation films, such as Hells Angels (1930) and The Dawn Patrol (1930 & 1938).
Part of a collection gathered by famed aerial performers Paul Mantz and Frank Tallman, the Nieuport continued flying into the 1960s, and was among the numerous unique airframes put up for disposal at the 'Tallmantz Auction' of May 1968. Legendary racing car builder/driver
Jim Hall bought the Nieuport for $14,500. The aircraft was not flown after the early 1970s and largely disappeared from public view until 2019, when the American Heritage Museum started the restoration. Surprisingly, the plane's 1918 nine-cylinder Gnome Monosoupape 9N rotary engine was in outstanding shape.
Mikael moved forward, completing the entire airframe and engine mount and then installed the power plant. With the front end fully assembled, Mikael was able to form the cowling to the correct size and shape, within the very tight tolerances of the original design.
All metal components were found to be in excellent condition and utilized in the restoration. The final touches included mixing hand ground pigment for the paint and decorating the plane in the markings of America's first WWI Ace, Douglas Campbell's original N28.
The Collings Foundation and the American Heritage Museum are known around the world for restoring and operating some of the finest and most historically accurate aircraft. Our extraordinary N.28 restoration honors the designers, pilots, and mechanics of the First World War.
Designed and prototyped in the spring of 1984, the 7/8 scale Nie. 11 went through a hurried 10 hours of serious test flying before being loaded on a trailer for the trip to Oshkosh. Flight testing included the usual stuff, while I was watching, (and some "unauthorized" activities when I was not.)
The type of aircraft used by American ace Eddie Rickenbacker, the Nieuport 28 may not have been the most famous French fighter, but it was a capable aircraft in the right hands. The U.S. The Navy acquired the Nieuport along with a number of others (including the Hanriot HD-1, Sopwith Camel and Sopwith 1½ Strutter) after the war as part of its test program to launch aircraft from wooden decks built on the gun turrets of battleships.
In the summer of 2019, the Nieuport was shipped from Texas to the workshop of famous aviation restoration expert Mikael Carlson in Sweden. The first order of business was careful disassembly of all components. Being a wooden structure, and more than a century old, it was expected that some parts would be useful only as patterns for exact new-build components.
But, to Mikael's delight, much of the original structure was in excellent condition! The U.S. Navy employed the Nieuport 28 not in combat, but in the postwar evaluation of operating aircraft from ships. In 1919 the sea service acquired twelve examples for service with the fleet as part of the "shipboard fighter" concept.
The relatively inexpensive war surplus aircraft proved ideal for the operations in which the aircraft flew from platforms built on the forward turrets of battleships. After completing their flights, they either landed ashore or ditched at sea, inflating flotation bags affixed to the wings to prevent the airplane from sinking.
They were then returned to the ship by boat. The American Heritage Museum at the Collings Foundation featuring the Jacques M. Littlefield Collection explores major conflicts ranging from the Revolutionary War until today. Visitors discover and
interact with our American heritage through the history, the changing technology, and the Human Impact of America's fight to preserve the freedom we all hold dear.
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