The sesquiplane Nieuport design of M. Delange was the premier fighting aeroplane of the first half of the Great War, and is one of the emblematic designs of the period. During 1917 its star was eclipsed in French service by the fighting machines of the S.P.A.D. company, which were faster, more robustly built, and finally more powerfully armed. It was only owing to difficulties in producing and maintaining the S.P.A.D. that the sesquiplane Nieuports continued in French fighting escadrilles, and by early 1918, they had been relegated in French service to training units. In Japan, however, the Nieuport sesquiplane came to enjoy a solid post-war career, and even came to supplant its S.P.A.D. rival in first-line fighter units.
Early in 1917, Imperial Japanese armed forces resolved to acquire modern aerial capabilities. The Imperial Japanese Army decided to follow French models and employ mostly French equipment. This owed in part to reports from two Japanese lieutenants then serving as pilots in the French Aviation Militaire. One of these young men favored the Nieuport, and the other the S.P.A.D. The Japanese army decided to order examples of both for tests.
At the time, the new production model of the Nieuport sesquiplane was the N.24, which was M. Delange's attempt to keep his rotary-powered sesquiplane design competitive with the new S.P.A.D. type. With a slightly more powerful LeRhone motor (120hp instead of 110hp), a fuselage rounded out to a circular cross-section, and a new low-drag tail assembly, the N.24 had a better turn of speed than its predecessor, the N.17, but not sufficiently so as to match the new S.P.A.D. types. Worse, there were evidently problems with construction of the new tail assembly, leading to reversion to the earlier style for much of the type's production run (under designation N.24bis), and an innovation intended to increase aileron response proved to do quite the opposite in service, and had to be removed, but only after doing much damage to the type's reputation for agility in fighting escadrilles.
Acquisition of a pair of N.24 examples by the Japanese was no problem, but they could lay hands on just one S.P.A.D., and that only an early S.VII type. These arrived in Japan near the end of 1917, and were tested extensively through the first half of 1918. The Nieuport was selected for license production, which commenced at the Tokorozawa Arsenal in March of 1919, under the designation 'Nieuport Type 15 Square Meter' (a reference to its wing area, and a common usage in denoting basic Nieuport types). These early production examples were fitted with an 80hp LeRhone motor, and intended for use as advanced trainers, in which role they often carried a synchronized Vickers gun. With the end of the Great War, thousands of S.P.A.D. S.XIII types became redundant to the French, and the Japanese Army brought a hundred of them early in 1919; these, under the designation Hei-1, equipped new regular fighter units. Pilots trained on the sesquiplanes built by the Arsenal, and then went over to the heavier, better armed S.P.A.D.s.
For two years the Nieuport sesquiplanes were built at Tokorozawa, and then production was shifted wholly to the Koishikawa Arsenal at Tokyo, and the Nakajima company. At the start of 1922, examples constructed at Tokyo and by Nakajima began to be fitted with 120hp LeRhone motors, built by Tokyo Gas and Electric. Starting in May, 1922, these machines, under the designation Ko-3, began to arrive in the first line fighter units of the Imperial Japanese Army, where they replaced the S.P.A.D. types acquired in 1919. The reason for this change has not survived in available records. It is tempting to speculate, given the primacy which manouverability was assigned down the years by the Army's air service, that the superior agility of the Nieuport eventually won it preference over the S.P.A.D. in Japan. But there are other possible reasons, certainly. The S.P.A.D. XIII was not an easy type to maintain, and its geared Hispano-Suiza motor never fully lived down a reputation for unreliability; it is quite possible the Nieuport seemed preferable on this ground for what was, after all, a peace-time force without much in the way of even potential enemies aloft. Preference for domestic manufacture would also be an excellent reason, as part of building up an air arm is creating an aviation industry to supply and maintain it, and no license was to be had for production of either the S.P.A.D. XIII or its Hispano-Suiza motor.
In Japan, the Nieuport sesquiplane remained in production till 1924, and was the first-line fighter of the Imperial Japanese Army air service until the end of 1926, when it was replaced by the Nieuport-Delange Ni-D.29 (built by Nakajima in great quantity as the Ko-4). The full-power examples soldiered on for several years more as trainers. Approximately a hundred went onto civil register, sold to racers and stunt pilots, to leading newspapers for fast courier flights, and to wealthy enthusiasts generally. A number of 80hp examples could still be found in service in 1931 at an aviation school for women pilots at Tachikawa.
This model is of an early production trainer example built in 1920 by the Tokorozawa Arsenal, with an 80hp LeRhone. The kit is a Roden N.24, built with only small modification and improvement. The interior is a mix of kit parts, Tom's Modelworks brass, and scratch-built parts; the inspection panels are from the Tom's fret. The windscreen is scratch-built; its pattern seems to be common on export Nieuports, but not on French ones. The engine needed a good deal of work to turn it from a 120hp LeRhone into an 80hp type, as the former has most of its working parts behind the cylinders, while the later has them all in front. Decals are from Rising Decals, their 'Japanese Early Birds'' set, tweaked a little by adding underwing serials (which show in a photograph of an early example), and by showing different information on either side of the vertical tail surface (again as indicated by photographs). I damaged the tail number decal provided, and had to replace with a similar font I had of dry-transfer, it is a little wide but not seriously so. It is a great decal and I recommend it if the period interests you. Of great value to the build was an article on the type, profusely illustrated with photographs, in Arawasi Magazine (Summer 2009 issue). I am very grateful to its proprietor, Mr. Eliftheriou George, for making a copy of the back-issue available to me. these things are worth their weight in gold for those with an interest in early Japanese aviation.
