A French Nieuport fighter plane in flight, possibly a Nieuport 17, but possibly another model up to the Nieuport 27, with machine guns both above the upper wing, and along the fuselage.
The V struts, machine gun mounted above the upper wing, circular cowling, upward sweep of the tail, the tail itself, all mark the plane as a Nieuport.

1. French plane taken above the clouds.

Other views: Larger, Larger

A single-seat French fighting scout designed by Gustave Delage and produced by the Etablissments Nieuport. One of a series of models from the Nieuport 11 to the Nieuport 27, the 17 was introduced on the Western Front in May, 1916. The plane proved to be a highly successful Allied response to Germany's Fokker E.I, and helped end the dominance the E.I had given German flyers.

Like most Nieuports, the 17 was a sesquiplane, with a bottom wing significantly smaller than the upper.

Some models of the Nieuport 17 were fitted with incendiary Le Prieur rockets on the struts. The rockets were inaccurate and had only moderate success against observation balloons and none against Zeppelins.

French aces Charles Nungesser and Georges Guynemer, British ace Albert Ball, and Canadian ace Billy Bishop all flew the Nieuport 17.

Engine: 110hp Le Rhône 9J rotary piston engine

Maximum speed: 170kph/106mph; ceiling: 1,980m/6,500ft; range: 250km/155mi

Length: 5.96m/19ft 7in; wingspan: 8.2m/26ft 11 in

Armament: one fixed forward-firing 7.69mm/.303in Vickers machine gun

Nieuport 17 is an aircraft: single-seat scout plane.