Nieuport 28C.1

The Nieuport 28 was the first airplane flown in combat by pilots of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. Pilots from the 94th Aero Squadron (the "Hat-in- the-Ring" Squadron) made the first US operational flights across the front lines in France on March 19, 1918. On April 14, 1918, Lts. Alan Winslow and Douglas Campbell downed two German Albatros fighters in a 10-minute battle. Lieutenant Winslow was the first American pilot in the American sector of the front to down an airplane; Lieutenant Campbell was the first US-trained pilot to score a victory. The AEF obtained all of their Nieuport 28s directly from the factory. Although more maneuverable than the Spad XIII that replaced it, the Nieuport 28 had a reputation for being somewhat fragile, and it had a tendency to shed its upper wing fabric when the pilot put the aircraft into a dive. Both of the aircraft's machine guns were located on the left side of the fuselage. Capt. Edward V. "Eddie" Rickenbacker, the leading American ace of the war and the commander of the 94th AS, began his combat career flying the Nieuport 28, and he recorded his first solo victory on May 7, 1918. The Nieuport 28 was also flown by the 27th, 95th, and 103d Aero Squadrons. The Lafayette Escadrille, the group of American volunteer pilots flying for France, began operations in 1916 flying the Nieuport 11. When the AEF arrived in France, the US obtained more than 850 examples of the Nieuport 17, 21, 23, 24, and 27 as training aircraft, which was fortunate, as all of these were underpowered and would not have fared well in combat. The Nieuport 28 was also flown by Switzerland and Greece.

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