Guess who?

**kampfflieger** · #1 05-31-2008, 04:19 AM

It's a my new 1/72 WWI model in two variants. Please, ID the aircraft!

**Leif Ohlsson** · #2 05-31-2008, 10:47 AM

Parasol winged, rotary engine, French (?) & German markings - a wild guess would be Fokker DVIII. I just came across it looking at Old Troll's gallery, and I remembered your quiz.

I don't think this could really be it. The elevators are different. But at least I tried.

Leif

**Don Boose** · #3 05-31-2008, 11:53 AM

I'm really floundering here, but it looks like it could be a mid-wing, rather than a parasol, monoplane with a rotary engine. Something like the Bristol M1. The vertical stabilizer shape rules out the Morane Saulnier Bullet.

Don

**shrike** · #4 05-31-2008, 02:07 PM

The tail shape screams Nieuport.
N.VI perhaps?
Do we get floats?

**Don Boose** · #5 05-31-2008, 02:18 PM

Now that Mark has narrowed it down, I agree. I can see the nose shape and the landing gear skids. However, I now lean toward Nieuport IV.

Don

**kampfflieger** · #6 05-31-2008, 11:10 PM

OOPS! No one gives right answer

It's a R.E.P. N, French mid-wing two-sitter. Model in french livery and another one captured by Germans.

**Royaloakmin** · #7 06-01-2008, 03:47 AM

Looks very much like the Fokker V23 prototype, doesn't it?

**Don Boose** · #8 06-01-2008, 11:48 AM

I don't think I've ever seen this particular airplane before. Good find, Roman!

Don

**member_3** · #9 06-01-2008, 12:33 PM

I suspect only true WWI aircraft grognards would have heard of that one, Don. It was the only aircraft produced by the Etablissements D'aviation Robert Esnault-Pelterie (R.E.P.) to see action with the Aviation Militaire. Esnault-Pelterie had designed several aircraft from 1907-1914 with 12 R.E.P. Parasol aircraft being purchased by the RNAS. The N design of 1912 saw sevice with two French escadrilles but the restricted visibility due to the shoulder-mounted wing was a definite handicap in a plane whose mission was observation. The N also saw service with the Turks and the Serbs (whose 2 aircraft were intended for Turkey but were siezed enroute when the First Balkan War broke out.) R.E.P. produced a C.1 single-seat fighter to meet the Aviation Militaire's C1 specification but it offered no advantage over the SPAD 13 already in service. R.E.P.'s primary contribution to the war effort was the licensed production of Voisin and Caproni bombers.

Source: French Aircraft of the First World War, Davilla/Soltan, Flying Machine Press, 1997