The Nieuport 17 C.1 is a French sesquiplane fighter designed and manufactured by the Nieuport company during World War I. An improvement over the Nieuport 11, it was a little larger than earlier Nieuports and better adapted to the more powerful engine than the interim Nieuport 16. Aside from early examples, it had the new Alkan-Hamy synchronization gear, permitting the use of a fuselage-mounted synchronised Vickers gun firing through the propeller disc.
Nieuport 17
The Alkan-Hamy synchronization gear installed in a Nieuport 17
Early Nieuport 17 in July 1916 with Lewis gun and a cône de penetration
Early camouflaged Nieuport 17 fitted with over-wing gun and Le Prieur rocket tubes
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more drag than a monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and higher speeds made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.
First World War Sopwith Camel biplane
1920s biplane hang glider
The Gloster Gladiator, a World War II fighter biplane
Soviet Antonov An-2 biplane from the 1940s