In 1917, Canadian Fighter Ace, Billy Bishop, flew his Nieuport 17 in combat against German pilots, including an engagement with Manfred von Richthofen — the infamous “Red Baron”. By the end of the war, Bishop had shot down 72 enemy aircraft. Among Allied aces, he was second only to René Fonck, with 75.
As a follow-up to my replica of the Airco DH.2, I am now working to create a virtual replica of Billy Bishop’s distinctive blue-nosed Nieuport 17, with Bishop’s tail number B1566. It has been a difficult task, as the Nieuport 17 shape is particularly hard to achieve in Second Life. Prims just can’t be cut, twisted, hollowed, and otherwise tortured into the precise shapes needed. It is close, though.
I’ll have to do more research to confirm the shade of blue for the nose cowl. As the story goes, after Bishop’s fifth kill, someone brought out a can of blue paint in defiance of official regulations, which prohibited the custom paint schemes that were common among German squadrons. I would assume that the blue they had on hand would be the same colour used for the insignia and tail. In some depictions that I found, the blue was much lighter.
During my search for reference photos, I also found “Mark Miller’s 3-D Nieuport” — a page of exquisite computer renderings of the Nieuport 17. Some of it may not be accurate, however. I notice that the upper wing structure in these renderings has no hinges, and photographs from the time clearly show that the Nieuport 17 had hinged ailerons. It’s a minor detail, I suppose, but it indicates that a certain amount of creative license was taken. Regardless, they greatly helped my understanding of the Nieuport 17’s internal structure.
My own Nieuport 17 will be complete in a few weeks. After I finish building and texturing the model, I begin work on the scripts that bring it to life. After that: testing, testing, more testing, and then a couple more rounds of testing.